Exchange Program Offers Firsthand Culture Lesson

Leo is a student in the . During winter break, he enjoyed catching up on sleep, working out, attending parties and meeting friends for a bit of video gaming.

Sounds like any teenager, right? But Leo, 19, believes he has one leg up on most youths his age — he’s an exchange student. 

“I’m getting more life experiences in America than you could ever know,” said Leo, a high school senior who arrived here in August from his home country of Belgium to live with a local family. (Note: The North American Youth Exchange Network, which administers Leo's exchange experience, requests that neither students' full names nor the names of their schools be used in news articles.)

The Rotary Club of Berkley, whose exchange program comes under the umbrella of the Ohio-Erie Rotary Youth Exchange, is hosting Leo as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.

Rotary clubs carry out a variety of service projects that address poverty, hunger, the human condition, world peace and more. Founded in 1905, Rotary is the world’s fist service organization and now has a global network of some 1.2 million members in more than 29,000 clubs in 160 countries. 

The exchange program promotes cultural understanding and brings people together, even when they live worlds apart, fostering a free flow of ideas and opportunities across national borders.

Leo said his decision to become an exchange student was inspired partly by his older brother, who lived with a Wisconsin family three years ago.

“He loved it,” Leo said. “So the idea came to me, but I became involved because I wanted to. It’s wrong to push a child to go on an exchange.” 

Leo’s family in Belgium also hosts youths and has two exchange students now.

“I’ve always wanted to visit America,” said Leo, whose first language is French. “We have this idea that America is cool, but it’s the same as back home. And here, people think Europe is cool, but they find it to be pretty much the same as in America.”

He doesn’t find the school's curriculum too difficult, “except for Spanish,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to be learning two languages at once (including English).” 

Touching base with home

Leo likes to Skype with his parents now and then.

“Leo’s good about not contacting his real family too much,” said Ellen Blauer, the youth exchange officer for the Rotary Club of Berkley, which welcomes exchange students from ages 15 to 18. Most students live with at least two families during their visit.

“We find that kids who contact their parents too often tend to miss them more, especially girls,” Blauer explained.  

From a parent’s perspective, Blauer, a Huntington Woods resident, said her children had excellent experiences as exchange students several years ago.

"It’s a great way to see the world, because you know you’re involved with a secure program,” said Blauer, who has four grown children and also is a substitute teacher and tutor. 

Leo’s exchange parents in the said they have enjoyed having him.

“All of our students teach us something,” said Leo’s American mom, Michele. She and her husband have hosted students from Australia and Costa Rica, and their daughter went to Germany through an exchange program.

“You learn not only about culture, but you see our world through their eyes, which can be pretty funny at times. For example, a Costa Rican student once said to us, ‘Why do Americans put ranch (dressing) on everything?’ It got us thinking.”

Students who are interested in the program are selected based on a written application and personal interview.

“We are always looking for exchange students,” Blauer said. “It’s a challenge for us to find kids here who want to go because they are on these ‘academic tracks’ and think they are going to miss something if they go.”

Leo and Blauer are the first to tell you that students will miss nothing and gain everything.

“When they return to America, they are so far ahead of when they left," Blauer said. "They get language skills, for one. You can’t really learn a language until you go to a country where it’s spoken.

“The program really opens up doors for kids," she said. "You actually learn a language inside a culture> it’s a different way to relate to people.”

Leo added: “The exchange program is an opening to the world and other cultures and languages and ways of speaking.”

His exchange mom concurs.

“We’ve always encouraged our kids to broaden their horizons,” Michele said. “The only way to do that is through exposure. You can talk about it until you're blue in the face, but unless you go somewhere and meet people from different parts of the world, are you really able to understand that it’s a big, big global community we’re in.”

The United States through new eyes

As for what he misses back home, Leo is quick to say human contact — as in touch.

“Americans are more open with words than we are, but they don’t touch easily,” he said. “I really find that difficult.” 

He also misses what he called “pedestrian centers.”

“We have a pedestrian area in my city that is so much nicer than the one in Detroit," he said. "There’s nothing very attractive in Detroit."

Foodwise, he said things just taste different.

“A Coke here tastes different than back home," Leo said. "And the mayonnaise here is completely different.”

As well, Leo believes the measuring system in the United States is downright “crazy.”

But don’t think for a second that the Belgian student isn’t ecstatic about his Metro Detroit experiences.

“The exchange program helps to build confidence,” Leo said. “And it opens my mind to other ways of seeing life.”

Added Blauer: “The exchange program is great because kids get a clean slate when they arrive. There are no preconceived notions.”

The program invariably invigorates the soul, she said.

“You learn who you are from the inside,” she explained. “You discover yourself.”

“Yep,” said Leo. “That is really true.”

For more information on the Rotary Club of Berkley Exchange Student Program, visit ohioerie.org. You may also e0mail Ellen Blauer at ryeblauer@yahoo.com. Blauer also recommends reading The New Global Student (Three Rivers Press) by Maya Frost. The Rotary Club of Berkley meets at 12:15 p.m. Mondays at the First United Methodist Church, 2820 W. 12 Mile Rd. in Berkley; anyone interested in the exchange program or  Rotary programs is welcome.