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FULTON, Ill. — Around 200 foreign exchange students have been placed in homes in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin thanks to Regional Director for Academic Year USA Global Youth Exchange Mimya Andersen of Thomson, Ill.

Andersen, who is orignally from the Philippines, has been working for Ayusa for 20 years and has hosted 20 students herself.

“Once you host a student, it’s such a great experience you want to host again,” Andersen said.

Working with people from different cultures has always been a part of her life. Prior to working with the students, she worked at a Vietnamese Refuge Camp teaching English.

“My life is not extraordinary, but I have been able to help many students and people from other cultures learn about American culture,” Andersen said.

She has placed students from Brazil, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Korea, China and many other countries in schools in the Gateway area, including Clinton High School, Camanche High School, Fulton High School and Prince of Peace. The students usually stay for a semester or a year and many choose to come back for additional years, although the number of exchange students at local schools has declined significantly over the years.

On average in previous years, Andersen placed 25 to 30 students. This year she only placed seven students in the area. For the first time, Clinton High School didn’t take an exchange student this year, but there is hope that the school will take students next year, according to Andersen.

Overall, schools in the area and Iowa in particular have been very open to having exchange students, according to Andersen.

“Iowa has been very generous,” Andersen said. “This place is being put on the map for hosting so many students from so many different countries.”

As the school year is coming to a close soon, several exchange students and host families are able to reflect on their experiences with the program. Clinton High School teacher Jennifer Hansen says hosting exchange student Judy Hsu from Taiwan changed their family dynamics in a wonderful and positive way.

“Judy has brought to our family a new look on life from an unfamiliar culture that is truly different than we are used to in the USA,” Hansen said. “We have learned about their holidays and have had celebrations that are important to her culture and she has experienced all of our holidays and events that make our culture unique.  I strongly encourage families to experience sharing your home with a foreign exchange student, because it is a win-win situation for all involved.”

Likewise, Hsu, who has been attending Prince of Peace, says she has learned a lot about American culture and in turn has taught her host family many things as well.

“I have learned a lot of from being an Ayusa exchange student,” Hsu said. “Not only my language skills have improved, but this has also changed my global perspective. Now I know that there are people with different cultures and life on the opposite side of the earth and we both can learn a lot from each other.”

Joanne Mulholland, also a teacher at Clinton schools, says hosting student Niini Halonen from Finland was a new and exciting experience for her family.

“The most exciting part has been watching our student try new things and go through new experiences,” Mulholland said. “She has enjoyed her time at Prince of Peace making new friends, attending dances, participating in sports, and learning about the American culture. She has become such a part of our family that it will be difficult to watch her leave at the end of this experience.”

Halonen says the exchange can be challenging at times, but everything went well for her.

“I’ve learned a lot about the American culture and all the differences compared to my own home country,” Halonen said. “I think that right now I can’t really see everything that I’ve learned during this time yet but when I go back home then I’ll see how much I’ve learned and grown up here in the U.S. as a person.”

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This upcoming school year, the Wisconsin Ayusa team, led by host mom and Ayusa Regional Director, Deb Prokop, intends to bring more exchange students to the state!

Deb has hosted 17 students from 12 different countries. She first got interested in hosting through her daughter, who became best friends with an exchange student from Denmark. The student had such a positive impact on the Prokop family, that they decided to experience the benefits of hosting for themselves. Shortly after, Deb decided to work for Ayusa as a Regional Director, as well as continuing to host. She has worked for Ayusa for 4 years and loves how thoroughly Ayusa screens their exchange students.

One of the best parts of the job for Deb is helping exchange students to maximize their American experience.  “The rewards come from knowing that I can make a difference in improving educational and cultural experiences for students and host families,” says Deb.  “The hosting experience gives families with children an educational advantage in an ever- increasing global society and will help to prepare young people for the changes of the future.”

Deb is dedicated to creating the best possible experience for the students in her care. “This job is not a job but a vocation and it allows you to be a citizen diplomat and help to build peace and understanding around the world,” says Deb.

 
A few weeks ago with a friend, I pulled out my old photos from the days before digital—you know, before 2000 in high school! Then I ran across a picture of our stellar staff member, Nancy Matuszek, her exchange student from Japan, my mother (also an Ayusa host parent) and myself with a shaved head, braces and a South Carolina sun tan. Then the memories flowed…

Ten years after this picture was taken, I am working in the San Francisco Ayusa office continuing the legacy and tradition of one of the values that my parents worked to instill in me: tolerance through exposure to cultural diversity. It all started with my brother, Mike, at 15. Mike spent one year in Norrkoping, Sweden that changed his life forever. I still remember hearing his tearful messages on our answering machine while he was going through the depths of homesickness, watching my mother's painful reaction and my father reassuring us that this was essential for his growth and success. When Mike came back to the States, he expected everyone to speak to him in Swedish. Ha! Oh, the joys of readjusting to your own culture!

The exchange experience and its obvious impact on Mike spread throughout my family. Mike began volunteering to help with host families and students in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Then we independently hosted his best friend from his exchange in Sweden, Robert. Now, not only was I seeing the impact on my brother, and meeting other exchange students, but I was feeling the impact of hosting and gaining a new brother. To this day, Robert is family and his year with us will never be forgotten.

With my house and adolescence now an eclectic hodgepodge of different cultures, my family moved to South Carolina. One of the first things my parents did upon unpacking was look for an Ayusa rep. My brother had just left yet again on the Ayusa-sponsored CBYX Program, so we were very familiar with Ayusa. Nancy Matuszek (pictured here with my mother and her Japanese exchange student) brought us into the Ayusa family. The following year, we were hosting an Ayusa student, Pavel, from Poland. Yet another international imprint was left on the Byrne family and my life.

Finally I graduated from high school and was accepted to college, but not before I applied for an Ayusa outbound exchange to Spain. Now it was my turn to complete what I thought was the last piece of the Ayusa exchange experience—actually going abroad. The experience in Spain – I flew out of New York on September 8, 2001 and woke up in my host family home on day one of my exchange, September 11, 2001 – was one that shaped the course of my adult life. I was rematched from my first family. I lived in a farming community with host parents that worked the olive fields and asparagus packaging assembly line; a far cry from my parents in the US that are a Lutheran pastor and CPA. Want a fun experience? Try explaining your catechism and your father's midlife career change from economist to pastor to farmers in southwest Spain, in Spanish all while balancing the stereotypes presented in the media about religion in the U.S. FYI: there's a war on terror and a world that is growing increasingly anti-American. Whew! I learned the value of just listening during all of this.

The years after my Ayusa exchange were forever shaped by time in Spain and before. I did a college exchange in Argentina, revisited Spain and my host parents and I continue to travel at every opportunity, especially if it involves climbing a mountain. Most importantly, I now work for the organization that provides these life-changing experiences to thousands of people everyday. When I was in Spain, homesick, confused and feeling alone, I vowed that one day I would work for Ayusa and use my experiences to help future students. The world was falling into global conflict and the stakes and importance of human diplomacy were crystal clear. We needed to work to understand one another.

We hear it over and over that Ayusa provides life-changing experiences. It's true. Looking back at this high school picture in my shorts, braces and awkward smile, I think about Nancy, the events that she and Marion Crane, another Ayusa staff superstar, put on at their homes and the students that they exposed me to. On such a personal and community level, these wonderful women continue to plant seeds for understanding and peace. They alter the course of youths' lives on a global scale. I owe them for bringing me into Ayusa and bringing me into this family that I'm so proud to represent.

 Ayusa Rocks!