Yes AFS news

Students Teach and Learn Peace

Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 +0000 2008

This article was originally published on WCPN Ideastream

by Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3

As an exchange student, it’s bubbly Kartika Nurahayati’s job to introduce herself and her culture to Americans – and to bring home to Indonesia an understanding of the United States. Sometimes that’s a little tricky. Like what exactly does her American sister eat for breakfast?

Kartika Nurahayti : “We usually have a lot of fruits at the house, but we rarely get mangos at home. One morning Rebecca was going to school, and she asked me if I can peel the mango. I said, Rebecca, do you want me to peel our cat?”

It turned out Mango the cat was perfectly safe. Sixteen year-old Rebecca assured her of that. She’s a vegetarian like the rest of the Kimmelfield family.

Rebecca Kimmelfield: “It was pretty funny. She was pretty scared. I was talking about the fruit, but I guess she didn’t realize that cause it was early in the morning.”

At 17, Kartika is very different from your typical American teenager. She is pleasant but deferential. Expressing her opinion to adults doesn’t come easily. At school she wears a hijab – the headscarf some Muslim women wear to show modestly. Her clothes – while trendy—cover her from wrist to ankle.

Kartika says it wasn’t easy talking her very strict parents into traveling to America alone.

Bob Kimmelfield —who Kartika calls her American dad—says he understands parental hesitation. He commiserated with Kartika’s father by phone just last week.

Bob Kimmelfield: “I told him what Kartika had told me about him being overprotective, and how when she told me that I said your father has let you go halfway around the world to stay with people who he’s never met—and that doesn’t sound overprotective. He got a laugh out of that.”

Kimmelfield is Jewish. Wife Margaret Krolkowski is Catholic. Children Rebecca, Bruce and Leon are still deciding. This is the family’s first experience hosting an exchange student.

Bob Kimmelfield: “This seemed like it would work well. We needed a little more diversity —and we found it.”

The YES program, short for Youth Exchange and Study, was created by the U.S. State Department and Congress after Sept. 11th. The idea was to initiate diplomacy with the Muslim world through its teenagers. Making 16 to 18 year olds agents of World Peace is a pretty heavy load for young adults, but Kartika seems to welcome it.

Kartika Nurahayti i: “Actually, before I come here I didn’t really pay attention a lot with what is happening in the world. I mean, I care about my country, but whatever, other countries having war? Oh…Right now when I have a Jewish dad and a Catholic mom, and I feel connected.”

In her American senior year, Kartika met with politicians in Columbus and Washington, attended prom and marched with the band. She went to mosque with Muslim friends from Shaker, and regularly attended mass and synagogue with her American parents.

Kartika Nurahayti : “When I heard the lectures it feels like oh, this is the same thing with the Muslim and Christians. So it’s just like basically, it’s very universal.”

Carol Bell oversees exchange students and recruits host families in Cleveland’s east side suburbs. She says students exposure to American culture goes far beyond their own personal experiences.

Carol Bell: “With each student touching the hearts of about 40 different people and then going home and changing some stereotypes that their culture may have about us, it gradually just builds.”

Kartika says she has been fundamentally changed. Kartika Nurahayti: “Before I went here I somehow hate people without enough reasons. I’m like oh, these people are bad and I have to avoid them. Right now, I know a lot more about why these people hate these people, and I guess there is a way not to hate people.”

Kartika goes home this weekend.

Alumni Spotlight: Ahmed Fayez Desouky

Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 +0000 2008

Ahmed Fayez Desouky, 06-07 alumnus from Egypt, recently took first place nationwide in Thanaweya Amma, the final Egyptian graduating certificate from secondary school.

Ahmed, who is legally blind, was hosted with the Christopher family in Kansas.

Many of you may have seen him on Egyptian TV, on Al Ashera Masaa, where the first thing he mentioned was his year with YES and how it has changed his life and motivated him. H.E. Minister of Education also called him to congratulate him personally and present him with his prize.

Congratulations to Ahmed on his achievement and for continuing to be an excellent YES representative!

Grant Opportunity for Alumni!

Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 +0000 2008

GRANT OVERVIEW
Youth Service America (YSA) and Disney are offering grants of up to USD500 to support youth-led service projects taking place from October 15-November 15, 2008.

Application deadline is 30 August.

For grant information and application please visit the ServeNet website.

From Youth Service America: Children can solve community problems by working with their families, schools, friends, and neighbors. Join in the global youth service movement, and make a difference in your area.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
This is an international grant opportunity, so applicants from all countries are welcome to apply, provided they are:

Youth (ages 5-14); or

Older youth (ages 15-25) who design a project that engages children (ages 5-14) as volunteers; or

Recognized groups/organizations who work with younger youth (ages 5-14).

The term “youth” is equivalent to “young people.” For this grant, youth (ages 5-14) should have a significant part in planning, implementing, and evaluating the proposed service project.

Student from Indonesia Bridges Cultural, Religious Gaps

Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 +0000 2008

This article was originally published in the Ann Arbor News

Posted by David Jesse
The Ann Arbor News June 28, 2008

Sitting in a terminal at Detroit Metro Airport last year, Nurasiah Jamil was too nervous to look outside and see the people she was going to be living with for the rest of the year.

Instead, she relied on a friend to look among the people holding signs with names on them and to find John and Susan Clinthorne, the Ann Arbor couple with whom Jamil would be staying.

The Clinthorne also were a bit nervous about the foreign exchange student from Indonesia who would be living with them for the school year. After all, they had never met. They hadn’t even corresponded. Now, as Jamil prepares to leave Ann Arbor on Monday, they’re all family. “I learned (this year) that I like having a daughter,” John Clinthorne said.

Jamil, 17, made the decision to come to the United States while in middle school. That’s when she learned about the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

“So many people thought our religion was at fault,” Jamil said. “I want to help make peace, (but) I was in middle school and couldn’t go anywhere.

“I feel responsible for helping. I’m part of the new generation of Muslims.”

Then, in high school, Jamil applied for the competitive YES program, which was created after 9/11 to foster bolster understanding between America and the Islamic world.

Jamil and her host parents, who are Christian, worked on this during her stay. “We are open minded and listen to each other about our religions,” Jamil said.

Susan Clinthorne admitted to having a few concerns about hosting a Muslim student. “When you don’t understand something, you can have some fear,” she said. “I had a little bit of fear. That’s gone now.

“I feel like everyone who has met Nur loves Nur. She has that great smile.” Jamil also had some concerns. “Before I was here, I thought the Christians would hate me, but they have been so nice to me.”

Jamil attended Pioneer High School and graduated this spring. She was involved in a wide variety of activities, including playing lacrosse for the first time.

But her first day at the school wasn’t so smooth.

“I couldn’t find my friend, so I just sat by myself at lunch,” she said. “It was kind of scary.”

She also noticed several differences in school-related behavior, including the way students treated their teacher, which was with less respect than she was used to. Seeing couples kissing in the halls, also “surprised” her.

She enjoyed U.S. history and loved playing in the snow – the first time she had seen snow. Jamil said she hopes to come back to the United States and study to become a nurse.

Join the discussion at blog.mlive.com/study_hall.

©2008 mlive.com. All Rights Reserved.
Photo: Allen Warren, Ann Arbor News

Michigan Exchange Students Help Local Elementary Schools Raise Pennies for Peace

Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 +0000 2008

by Sharon Held, Local Coordinator, Ann Arbor, MI

After last year’s YES Conference, I became inspired to work harder to incorporate a leadership program into our already busy activities schedule. We turned our Mid- Year Orientation into a “Leadership Retreat” and talked about leadership characteristics, saw a terrific documentary (“Emmanuel’s Gift”) about a disabled boy in Ghana who changed the perception of disabled people in Ghana. Then they learned about several service project options and selected Pennies For Peace.

Several weeks ago, our YES students, along with teams of AFSers, made 30 classroom presentations in 4 elementary schools to tell the kids about themselves, AFS, and Pennies for Peace and asked the kids to join them in raising money to help educate children in the remote, mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The children LOVED the whole thing and so did their teachers. The kids asked a lot of questions about exchange programs and the countries from which these students had come, and they brought in a LOT of pennies! The final tally was $1154.19 (and that’s a lot of pennies!!).

In addition to the students pictured, the students involved were Najat Hashim, YES Philippines; Laura Pund, CB Germany; Hortense Jousse, France; Clara Eidt, CB Germany; Kyoko Yoshida, Japan; Natalia Amira, Chile and Bernd Andersson, Austria.

The exchange students also did their own fundraising for a trip to Chicago and donations to Kiva, which connects people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Photo: Nurasiah Jamil (Indonesia), Laura (Germany), Anucha (Thailand) and Dianita (Chile)

Education Scholarships Available for Filipino Alumni

Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 +0000 2008

YES students from the Philippines may apply for a college scholarship from the Peace Corps Alumni Foundation for Philippine Development (PCAFPD). Information and the application form is available at the Peace Corps Foundation website.

If you do not have access to a computer in the Philippines, you may want to print out the application and instructions before you return home. All applications are due in Manila by September 30.

The requirements of the scholarship include academic excellence, financial need, and commitment to community service. Although there is not a firm financial cut-off line, most scholarships are awarded to students with family income below 120,000 pesos/year. Applications for nursing students will not be accepted. All scholarships are for universities and colleges within the Philippines. Graduates are expected to work in the Philippines for at least as long as they received financial aid from the Foundation. Please see the website for more information.

Local Exchange Student Changes Perceptions of Muslim Cultures

Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 +0000 2008

CHICAGO, June 19 /PRNewswire/—Ardani Prawira arrived from Indonesia last August with certain preconceived notions of what America would be like. Shift forward ten months, and his view has completely changed; plus, he’s shown people in his local Illinois community that “Muslim” does not equate to the negative stereotypes so common in the post-9/11 United States.

Prawira is participating in an exchange program sponsored by the Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State with AFS Intercultural Programs. The Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program was created after September 11, 2001 in an effort to build bridges of peace and understanding between the citizens of the U.S. and countries with significant Muslim populations.

Prawira attended Thornton Fractional Township South High School in Lansing, IL and has had multiple life-changing experiences during his stay, including expressing his artistic talents at his high school and local art galleries through photos. Prawira has always been interested in photography and art; when he found out that he could take an art class that would allow him to display his talents, he was excited.

“We don’t have access to art class in Indonesia, so it was really great to hear that it was offered at my school,” said Prawira. “Not only has the art been great, but all the different cultures I have experienced have been wonderful too.”

“Ardani is just like any other teenager,” said Odell Newton, Prawira’s host father. “This is my first time hosting a YES student and it has been a great experience. I definitely recommend hosting to everyone.” Host families volunteer to take these students into their homes.

Having participated in the YES program every year since it first began in 2003, today AFS is one of the leading nonprofits bringing high school exchange students from countries with significant Muslim populations to the U.S.

“The YES program provides an opportunity for Americans to make a positive contribution towards peace—as host families, volunteers and educators,” said Keri Dooley, manager at AFS. “Families who volunteer to host YES students are making the program possible—they’re a critical component in our being able to build bonds of friendship between the U.S. and the countries participating in this program.”

Shortly after Ardani returns to Indonesia in July, AFS and its consortium partners, PAX, AYA and ACES, will welcome approximately 375 new exchange students to the U.S. through the YES program.

Philippines 08-09 Scholarship Winners

Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 +0000 2008

This article was originally published in the Sun Star Philippines

2 Davao students get US scholarship

TWO Davao City high school students have qualified as scholars for the Partners of Learning Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program of the American Field Scholars (AFS) for school year 2008-2009.

In a letter from Elizabeth Venzon-Eduave, Interim National director of AFS-YES Program addressed to Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus, Ibrahim Almotayri of Sta. Ana National High School and Anwar Alauya of Toril NHS are among the 40 students nationwide identified as AFS-YES recipients.

The selected third year students will have the opportunity for home stay in the United States of America (USA) while at the same time study in the schools in the US for a year.

They will leave on August 10 to start their year as AFS-YES scholars.

To date, the foundation has a total of 158 scholars, 40 of them are currently in the US and will reach to 198 upon the departure of these new batch of scholars.

The program aims to provide intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world.

© Copyright 2007 Sun.Star Publishing, Inc.

Photo: Elizabeth Eduave, AFS Philippines

My dream came true

Mon Jun 16 00:00:00 +0000 2008

by Farimma Maharuddin, Malaysia ‘08
hosted in Hagerstown, MD

“Improving my English” ... that was my expectation. Before i came to the United States, i didn’t really know about the United States and what it looked like; i thought that the United States is a country for “white people.” I knew a little bit about the United States from television and media. When i watched a movie or anything about the United States, i told my parents that “i will come to UNITED STATES one day”, but now my dream came true!

I’m so happy with my life in the US and i have a nice host family, a lot of friends and everything. I want to say thank you to AFS Malaysia because they gave me a chance to come to the United States, and thank you to AFS America because they welcomed me and all the exchange students. I also want to say thanks a lot to PAX and YES Program because they sponsored me when i’m here. I’m so lucky because i can join this program and come to United States.

When we first arrived in the US, i was so sad because I was still homesick and having trouble adapting myself to the new environment, weather, everything. But now i can adapt to new environments and new people.

After we finished orientation, I was so excited to meet my host family, but at the same time so scared that my host family will not welcome me to their family and life. But I was wrong, that was just my imagination! Actually my host family was so very nice, kind, caring and lovely. They welcomed me to their family and they said that i was a part of the family!!! I’m so close with my host family, especially my host brother. sometimes we go to the mall together and have a lot of fun!!!

After several days in the US, I was still home sick.. but so excited to see my school and meet my friends. My school is a Christian private school with 78 students. The first time at the school, I was afraid to meet people, scared that they would not want to be friends and not understand what i’m talking about. But actually they all were so friendly, nice, kind and caring about each other. They all welcomed me at the school and helped me if i needed help. I have a lot of sweet memories with all my friends. My school has a lot of activities such as Food festival, Meet the Press Night, Trip to Hershey Park and everything, i had a lot of fun with my friends and my teachers!!

Now i just have 1 week and a half left in the United States. It’s really 2 sad to leave people that i love, especially my host family and friends. I will never forget them. They all helped me when i’m here and I appreciate them so much. But the sad thing is i will be leaving soon and they all make me cry when we all hang out together.

I had a lot of experiences here in America and i will never, ever and forever forget my host family and friends with our sweet memories, funny stories and everything!!! I WILL MISS ALL MY FRIENDS AND MY HOST FAMILY…!:(

Experience is the Best Teacher

Sat Jun 14 00:00:00 +0000 2008

by Suad Rashid, Ghana 07-08
Hosted in Hood River, OR

At the age of sixteen, I made a decision to leave my family for one year. It was the most difficult decision I have ever made. Leaving home for a different country, with different ways of doing things—this wouldn’t be easy, but I knew I would be taking a step ahead in my life. Experience is the best teacher and so I wanted to experience something different in my life by traveling to the United States as an exchange student from Ghana.

So much is said about being an exchange student, but only when you experience it do these things make sense. It is definitely not easy, but you do end up growing and changing. As I was about to enter the boarding gate of Kotoka International airport in Ghana for the United States, I looked back and saw my family and friends waving and saying goodbye. I became sad; I felt really bad, like not going at all because I would miss them so much. I would miss the food I liked best and I would miss the weather. I would miss everything here because things were going to be different and there I realized I would even miss the things I didn’t like. But then, life is all about challenges and being able to overcome these challenges shows who you really are, what you are and who you can be. I told myself, “Others have been able to make it so you can also make it.”

I arrived in Portland. I was met by three complete strangers who said they were my host family. At that instant I knew it would take a lot to live with people you don’t know for one year. I told myself if I am brave as I claim, I should be able to live with them like my real family. As we came to Hood River, I was shocked because almost everything was different, the environment, shops, houses, food, the people and even the English accent. Although I spoke English, people found it difficult to understand.

I have been in Hood River for the past ten months and I am really proud of myself. I am now happy and used to everything around; I am also getting used to the cold weather because Ghana is very hot. I am glad I came to the United States. There is a lot of fun at school, and I have friends; the people are friendly, and I love my host family. I am content with my life here and I am happy because I didn’t know things would turn out like this.

I have also made a lot of friends from all around the world which is the most exciting part of my exchange. I have friends from Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, and Germany and a lot of other countries. Recently I traveled to Disneyworld which was the most amazing trip I have ever been on. I know being an exchange student gave me the opportunity to go on such a trip. I really had so much fun. It is an experience I will never forget in my life.

I know that after my experience, I will not be the same person I used to be and my family will be proud of me. Remembering this makes me want to complete my exchange experience without getting into trouble. I know I will be able to overcome this challenge because that is what life is about. I know my experience is going to form a memorable part of my life and so I’m working to make it a good memory. I also know I will be very sad to say goodbye to all my friends and my host family. This goodbye is different from the one I said before coming here, because this can be forever. I am proud of myself because I’ve been able to take a step ahead in my life and I am happy to be an exchange student.