By Nicolette Lau (YES 2017-2018 South Africa, hosted with AFS in Colorado Springs, CO)

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." --Mother Theresa.

Mother Theresa was a strong believer in promoting peace and I hope to do the same, Well, where does it start? It starts with me.

I believe that a youth ambassador helps promote peace by leading by example, so that when you are in your host school or in your home country you can promote these skills by practicing them, such as listening, being flexible, compromising, communicating, empathizing, and understanding.  One can also simply lead by example by doing simple, kind, day-to-day things such as picking up litter that isn’t yours, helping out someone who is in need, admitting your mistakes and compromising.

For example, during IEW week as I gave presentations about my country and culture, I broke down stereotypes, and I taught some of my visible culture aspects such as language and history. I had so much fun teaching, but I also realized, it wasn’t only my audience that was learning, but I was learning too! Many teachers and students came to speak to me and I believe that communicating with each other is how one can learn and practice understanding; this is one of the ways you can pass peace forward.

It’s very interesting when students or teachers tell me their views on history, politics or even interesting facts about their culture and we exchange movies, songs and thoughts. This helped me to break down the stereotypes I held and get the facts right. I started being an ambassador for my home country but as I go along I realize that when I go back to my home country I can be an ambassador for the United States too, and hopefully break down the stereotypes with the new information I have from my exchange journey.

I learned that during my exchange year I’m faced with many challenges, such as situations where I do not always agree with the other party – however being an exchange student teaches you to understand why people think or do things the way they do. It teaches you to not only see the visible culture features, but the hidden cultural aspects, like the iceberg theory, so that at home or in my host community or whatever situation I am in, I can understand both sides of the argument and help where I am needed, to ultimately create peace and to help reach understanding between different beliefs and values.

I believe that you show kindness and love when you pass peace forward- you display some form of freedom and love. I think of it as “It’s not about deserve, it’s about what you believe, and I believe in love.” ---Wonder Woman