To celebrate International Education Week, two students from opposite ends of youth exchanges collaborated to present their experience during the iEARN/Global Education Virtual Conference.

On Thursday, November 15, 2012 an American and Moroccan youth shared their story of inbound and outbound exchange. Jennifer is an American youth who studied in Rabat, Morroco at the Qalam Wala Center for Arabic Studies under the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Program. Sara is a Moroccan who is completing a year-long exchange program in Washington D.C. under the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program. Both programs are funded through the U.S. Department of State and sponsored by the Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs (ECA).

During the virtual workshop, students compared their experiences of cultural immersion in each other’s countries and how they adjusted and adapted their academic and social life. The sessions explored the value of educational exchanges and impact from different student perspectives; how American exchange students’ experiences compare with their counterparts in Morocco; and the similarities and differences of the exchange experience in the US and Morocco.

Students from both the YES and NISL-Y programs have conducted hundreds of similar in-person and virtual workshops around the world this week.