Secretary Clinton Praises Exchange Programs as a Valuable Form of Citizen Diplomacy
“Families who welcome these exchange students into their homes and hearts not only enrich the life of an exceptional young person, they help build people to people connections that span the globe and last a lifetime,” says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Click here to hear more.

Ann Stock Sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
During her remarks at the ceremony, Assistant Secretary Stock noted that half the world’s population is under the age of 25 and that it is critical to find new ways to engage these young citizens of the world.  She hailed exchange programs as “a quintessentially American form of diplomacy”, as well as the key to fueling “an engine for change that is perhaps unprecedented in American democracy”.

PAX On YouTube
Learn more about the hosting experience and the PAX organization on YouTube. You can also check out a YouTube visual diary posted by New Hampshire students and the winning video from this year’s YES Host Family Contest, which was posted by Barnes-Johnson family.

Book Cover Winner
PAX congratulates Malaysian student Soon King Yaw who won the CSIET Art Cover contest. His artwork is featured on the cover of the 2010-2011 Advisory List. Soon King spent the spring semester with the Bolin family in South Carolina.

Eco Eagle
The 15 billion cans of soda consumed in the US create a lot of cans, so Aditya Putra from Indonesia came up with a clever way to reuse the cans. Pictured is his American eagle sculpture. See the “PAX goes GREEN Contest Winners” story for more details.

It’s Not Too Late to Host This Fall
There are still a few students who need host families. Hosting is an ideal way to broaden your horizons while helping a young person learn about “your” America. Recently returned alum HyeRan Seo recounts, “My family was a very, very perfect match for me. They just became my real family. Coming from the capitol of South Korea to a small town in America was a very different but precious memory and experience. I would totally recommend this exchange student program to others.”

Up a Creek, WITH a Paddle
Mykola Krasylynkov, a FLEX scholar, is a natural in the water, despite being blind and never having gone kayaking before. “It was real choppy and rough but nothing was going to stop this kid,” says his PAX coordinator, Susan James of St. Augustine, Florida. James made the arrangements for this exceptional Ukrainian teen to attend a special boarding school designed to unleash the potential of impaired students.

Ole! Ole!
When it comes to soccer, it is said that “the English invented it; the Brazilians perfected it.” Sporting fan gear and eager to learn more about Brazilians, the Sanstead family welcomes Isabela Couto into their family in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Hello from the Big Apple
These PAX students from Spain were but one of 14 countries represented at the first of two PAX student arrival orientations in August. Before traveling on to their host communities, they met up in New York City for three days of PAX workshops on cultural adjustment and problem solving. The week, however, was not all business. Highlights included making new friends, a full day of sightseeing in New York City, a barbeque and a farewell dance.

Americans in Paris
With proper accents, these American students bid adieu to their French families after three weeks in Paris.  Included in this group is Clare Burke, one of the PAX students who participated in the Language Adventure in France program. 

Welcomed in Pennsylvania
Newly arrived Anna Kostryakova from Turkmenistan and Maksim Kalinin from Russia loved this sign at a highway rest stop. It says, “Smile. You are in Pennsylvania”. Indeed, the FLEX students are smiling big as they get acclimated to life in the United States.

A Window Into Kenya
Cooking Kenyan food is one of the best things that I like to do here. I was very surprised because my host family really likes it even though the food is very spicy. They say it is the best food ever! At first when I started going to school, I hung out at breaks and lunches alone. This made me really homesick and that was my biggest challenge. After a few days, I started having conversations with the students in my school. They thought it was really cool that I was from Kenya and they appreciated my culture when I showed them a presentation during International Educational Week. Since then I’ve got so many friends. I’m not homesick anymore because my host family and friends keep me really busy and they are always there for me. Being an exchange student really changed my life. It helped me grow and be more responsible.

-Rukia Muhaj (Kenya)
Hosted by the Hotchkiss family
New Hampshire

One Big Family
When Jaunty came to live with us, we thought that we would just be a “welcome” home for him.  After the first week he was here, I knew that there would be no way that we could let this kid go.  He just fit in with our family so well.  It puts tears in my eyes just to think about letting him go back to India in June.  First of all, I have learned all kinds of things about India that I never knew.  I didn't know that English is taught from the littlest age on up in the schools.  I did not know that in India each state has its own language.  Jaunty speaks Hindi to his family and friends back home.  When they travel, they mostly speak English in other parts of India since they all have been taught that language.  I learned that a large percent of Indians are Hindu and I have an understanding of what they believe.  Not only that, but through Jaunty, I have met so many other Indians.  They all have become a part of our family. You can't help but love these guys.  We didn't know it at the time, but our family needed Jaunty in our lives.  He brings so much joy and happiness to our family and our friends as well.  Can you tell we love this kid!

-Brian and Myna Horst, host parents for Jaunty Sanmukhani (India)
Pennsylvania

To learn more about hosting, click here.

For students interested in traveling while in the US, click here.

PAX Goes GREEN Contest Winners
Congratulations to Aditya Putra and Fernando Vallejo, this spring’s PAX Goes GREEN winners. Aditya, a YES student from Indonesia living in Missouri, created a life size eagle using soda cans as a way to recycle the used cans he gleaned from his neighborhood. “I realized that Americans drink a lot of pop soda everyday, everywhere,” Aditya notes. After consulting with his art and sculpture teachers about the best way to attach the cut metal feathers, Aditya went to work with a glue gun. He worked for two weeks straight to make the magnificent eagle pictured on the right in the story “Eco Eagle”. Meanwhile in Indiana, Fernando Vallejo targeted the black smoke pollution that cars create for his PAX Goes GREEN project. To raise awareness of dirty emissions, the Spanish teen ran an Earth Day contest. He took white socks donated by Wal-Mart and fit them on each car’s tailpipe and then asked the vehicle owners to run their engines for exactly one minute. He tells us, “The results were measured by how clean or dirty the socks were after testing. Each driver was given information about how to reduce emissions.” Fernando even gave prizes for the cleanest socks: a $50 gift certificate that could be applied to auto detailing, a car wash, a fuel injector system check and an oil change. To view Fernando’s innovative green project in action, see his video on YouTube.