By Jack Bluhm, Sun Current Intern

This article is about Millicent Boacenkey Badu, YES 2016-2017 Ghana, hosted by YFU in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It was originally published in The Sun Current, local newspaper for Edina, Richfield, Bloomington, and Eden Prairie. To see the original article published in The Sun Current on June 7, 2017, please click here.

Moving to a new school is a big transition for any student. Imagine being a senior in high school, leaving everything that is familiar and comfortable behind and pressing the restart button.

Now, imagine traveling a total of 6,155 miles and crossing 10 international borders to a completely new country in order to get to that new school.

For Millicent Badu, this was her reality only one year ago.

Badu, 18, is originally from Ghana and is an exchange student at Eden Prairie High School. Badu was one of the 21 students selected from approximately 800 applicants of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES) in Ghana. Her stay in Minnesota was also facilitated by Youth For Understanding, the host organization supporting her J-1 Visa.

YES is a fully-sponsored exchange program administered by the U.S. Department of State for countries with a significant Muslim population. The program aims to create a mutual understanding between Americans and people from all over the world.

There are currently 32 countries participating in the YES program, and students who are chosen to participate in the program are given a round trip from their home country to the United States, along with a monthly stipend to study in a school and live with a host family for an entire school year.

Badu arrived in the United States Aug. 8, 2016 and did not know what to expect when it came to living in Minnesota.

“I didn’t know I was going to be in Eden Prairie until about a week before I left,” she said. “All I knew about Minnesota was that it was very cold, so I was kind of scared of the weather and the bad winters.”

As it does for anyone, Badu’s move to a foreign land came with some struggles in the beginning. Badu said the culture shock was one of the toughest obstacles to get over.

“My experiences in the first couple of weeks were the most difficult because I was still adapting to the new environment,” she said. “Everything was very different from my home country and it wasn’t easy finding friends.

“One of the biggest differences was the teacher-student relationship,” continued Badu. “In Ghana, the relationship between a student and teacher is very formal, where here it is more informal.”

However, Badu is a fast adapter. It only took her a few weeks to get accustomed to her new life.

“I joined some clubs and participated in a bunch of after-school activities, which have been really fun,” Badu said. “The people here are all really nice, and I have gotten to experience a lot of fun things and have gotten the chance to go to many nice places, like going to the mall.”

Now that her days in the United States are coming to an end, Badu has some mixed feelings on returning home to Ghana.

“I’m going to miss my friends the most,” she said. “This has been the best year in my life, and I have met many nice people who have changed my life and perspectives. My point of view on everything has really changed, and I feel like I am now more confident. I am not sad because it has ended, but happy because it happened.”

Contact Jack Bluhm at [email protected].