YES Programs

MENU  

STORIES


Why #YESisIEW

Collage of photos with YES alumni

International Education Week (IEW) is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. IEW comes at the perfect time of year each November because it comes right before Thanksgiving and YES students across America can give thanks for this terrific scholarship opportunity by sharing of themselves.

This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of a national effort to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange life experiences. IEW gives YES students across the U.S., and YES alumni around the world, a unifying opportunity to do just that: help educate Americans about their countries and cultures. In sharing of themselves, they simultaneously build bridges of mutual understanding and friendship in the place of negative stereotypes, xenophobia, and islamophobia. The impact of their week-long efforts creates a ripple effect that can only be described as monumental and enduring.

Group of students holding the Tunisian flag in a classroom.

During the five days of IEW, YES student Aliza Fatima hosted by ASSE in Kansas, gave five presentations to more than 60 people throughout Labette County, Kansas. She reflects on the week, saying: “Breaking stereotypes and teaching my national language was the best thing I did throughout the IEW. People thought that Pakistan is a country full of terrorism, but I changed their perspective by showing them slideshows, and after my presentations they were inspired and they actually wanted to visit Pakistan in the time ahead. The appreciation I got from my teachers and the people of city office was worth it.” 

Aliza’s success isn’t the only impactful result of IEW, YES students in over 570 communities across the U.S. gave over 8,000 presentations to an audience totaling over 130,000 Americans!

David Adegbuyi, a YES student from Liberia hosted by ACES in Ohio, also loved the opportunity of sharing his country with his host county of Lucas, Ohio: “IEW will probably be ranked the best week in my exchange year because it is a week when I gathered all my cultural knowledge and creativities of my country and selected which ones were most educational and fun to share. Most of all, I love the respect, gratitude and appreciation Americans give you when you share your country with them...Thanks so much to the once in a lifetime opportunity that YES and the U.S. Department of State gave me.”

A YES student wearing a traditional outfit and performing a dance from Indonesia.

For YES students, the week is packed full of presentations, answering questions, dancing, and purpose. Over 875 YES students made presentations about their home country to elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as to places of worship and community centers throughout their host communities. In these presentations, they discussed their culture and then allowed their audiences to experience it firsthand, such as by trying traditional foods, learning cultural dances, and for some getting henna tattoos. The students also exposed misconceptions about Islam and taught basic phrases in their native languages for some lucky audiences!

International Education Week brought a wonderful exchange of ideas, culture, and respect to YES students and their host communities. Thank you to each YES student for sharing of themselves and of their country and culture, and thank you to each host family for sharing your home with an exemplary YES student!


Share: