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YES Students Around the U.S. Launch International Education Week

Lindoor standing next to her poster where she gave a presentation about South Africa at her host family's local health club by the pool.

International Education Week (Nov. 17-21), a joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of State and Education, is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchanges. YES students hosted with AFS around the US are busy celebrating this week!

Lindokuhle “Linndor” from South Africa, hosted in Georgia with the Garrett Family, gave a presentation poolside at the local health club where her host family is a member. Linndor hopes to complete 30 presentations for International Education Week (IEW) and loves sharing her culture and the YES program with her host community.

Not only is she educating others during IEW presentations but, "it is a two way conversation when people tell me things that are similar in their cultures. I never knew South Africa had traditions in common with Ethiopia, for example!" Linndor reflects. She is learning more about herself, her home country, the African continent and the U.S. throughout IEW and her YES program experience with AFS overall!

Students from Macedonia hold the country flag and wear the red and white colors of the country.

Stefan from Macedonia, Nanuka, a FLEX program student from Georgia, Muhamad “Ikmaal” from Indonesia, and Karima “Ima” from Indonesia delivered presentations to a group at the Central United Methodist Church in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area.

Ima and Ikmaal wore traditional clothing from Indonesia while they spoke about the rich traditions and geography of their home country. Stefan and Nanuka presented their country’s flags and discussed some of the cultural aspects that make Macedonia and Georgia unique. The students and audience had a great time learning more about the students’ traditions!

Caroline from Indonesia and her US classmates performing Indonesian dance

YES scholar Caroline from Indonesia presented to three separate classes at her host school, Marquette High School in Missouri. Presentations were uniquely tailored to the subject matter of each class.

In her drama class, Caroline presented a traditional dance in a formal Indonesian outfit, and directed the students through four pairs of short skits that demonstrated cultural differences between Indonesia and the USA.

Next, in a Multicultural Literature class, she delivered a presentation and an accompanying slideshow which covered different aspects of Indonesian life. Caroline brought samples of chicken satay, a flavorful Indonesian dish for the class to taste, and students learned a traditional Indonesian dance.

In her German language class, Caroline taught students Indonesian words and phrases, speaking in English AND German to describe what the words/phrases mean! Students learned how to perform a traditional dance (different from the dances in previous presentations), and won prizes for answering correctly on a quiz based on things they learned during the presentation.

Many parts of these presentations were recorded on video, and Caroline will be editing these together for future sharing. Overall, Caroline impressed teachers with her ability to engage her audiences, and inspired dozens of questions from her classmates.


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