Georgia Magazine - September 2010 - (Page 26)

Above: Jennifer Ross enjoys a carriage ride in Tokyo, Japan, with Yu, her host sister. Above, right: The Meagher family and their exchange student Yuto, second from left, enjoy a visit with another family hosting an exchange student from Brazil. Middle: Aneela, Meerim, Clark and the family’s two dogs enjoy Sweetwater Creek State Park near Lithia Springs. Above: Two of Gayle Meagher’s exchange students,Tina from the Republic of Georgia, left, and Carmen from Germany, pose for the camera. Interested in hosting a high school exchange student or sending a student abroad? The Council on Standards for International Educational Travel lists more than 55 accredited international student exchange organizations on its website, www.csiet.org, including a searchable database for potential host families. Here is a sample: • ASSE International Student Exchange Programs, www.asse.com, (949) 494-4100 • Global Insights, www.globalinsights.org, (770) 514-7346 • NorthWest Student Exchange, www.nwse.com, (206) 527-0917 • Youth for Understanding, www.yfu-usa.org, (240) 235-2100 26 Kong, and core values, not culture, are what bind us. Georgia students generally show Southern hospitality to the international students and are accepting of cultural differences. Occasionally, a local student will ask the oddball question, such as whether they have fax machines in Germany or ride horses to school in Spain. Meagher recalls hosting a Turkish student after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks who expected a cool reception from her classmates because she was Muslim. “It was really touching for her to say, ‘I can’t wait to go home and tell everybody how wrong they are about Americans,’” Meagher says. “Ninety percent of the time, the students’ families contact us after the experience to say, ‘We sent you a child. You sent us an adult home.’” Still, the concept of a true student exchange is slow to catch on. Foreign students will pay upward of $6,000, not including spending money, to study in America, says Sherry Buchla, president of the Global Insights exchange program based in Marietta. Meanwhile, American high school students generally prefer touring to spending a semester or a year abroad, either because they lack the necessary foreign language skills or worry about missing prom, football and Advanced Placement exams. “I could go out tomorrow and say I would send you for free, and I would still have a tough time finding students who would leave America for a year,” Buchla says. Nearly 2,000 American high school students studied abroad last year on a program accredited by CSIET, including 14 from Georgia. By contrast, nearly 8,000 Georgia college students received credit for study abroad programs during the 2007-2008 academic year, the most recent statistics available. While university international programs offices and independent providers have successfully branded junior year abroad, there is not a similar push at the high school level. GEORGIA MAGAZINE More online at www. georgiamagazine.org http://www.csiet.org http://www.asse.com http://www.globalinsights.org http://www.nwse.com http://www.yfu-usa.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - September 2010

Georgia Magazine - September 2010
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This!
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
Special Energy Report
A Fast Track to the Airwaves
Crossing Cultures
Georgia's First Botanical Garden
The 2010 Washington Youth Tour
Higher Education in Georgia
Around Georgia
Travel Guide
My Georgia
Georgia@Home
Georgia Gardens
Georgia Cooks
Cookbook of the Month
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - September 2010