It’s June again. This past week, and over the next two weeks, our 2016-2017 group of students will return to their home countries. It’s such a bittersweet time of year. And we’re “just” the program coordinators — we’re not the ones who lived the experience day-to-day! It just goes to show you how these cultural exchanges have ripple effects . . . the relationships are what it’s all about.
Some students have fit into their host communities and families seamlessly, as if they were born to it. Some have faced challenges they did not expect. One thing they all have in common is that they have had an experience that has changed them forever. How that will translate into their future lives, how it will shape them as adults — that remains to be seen.
We can see, though, the current effects, having watched over the past 10 months the development of relationships and heard about the daily lives of our students and their host families. We see the teens who are leaving more confident, more mature, more independent, and more tolerant of others. The teens who can navigate public transit confidently who may not have done so before, who can do their own laundry, and who can cook dinner. The teens who can speak more fluently in a language in which they were hesitant last summer. The teens who have gone on stage never having done that before, who have won praise (well-deserved) in public piano recitals and competitions, and who have participated in state-level athletic competitions.
We have seen the effects on our host families, too, and on our students’ families back home. Host siblings who are already planning trips to their new brother or sister’s home. Parents and siblings from back home who are visiting at the end of the year and finding a new “family” here. One of our host parents describes her feelings about her student:
I am trying to tell myself that nothing changes — that no matter where we all are, she remains family. And yet…no more having her come out to give a sleepy good morning hug. No more dinnertime conversations, or card games, or quick rides to the store. All that stopped as she walked down the security line at the airport tonight…
I believe it. Nothing changes. We are still family, a larger family than before.
We believe that, too … our students all now have a second home and second family. This video sums it up for how we all feel as the students return to their “first” home:
