Bursts of Color - An American Exchange (Guest Interview)
My son Josh just completed a student exchange program… within the USA. I’m inspired by this American Exchange Project and its goal of building bridges between young people across our country. Josh also had a blast and made a bunch of new friends, so this week I’ve asked him to share the uplifting story.
What is the American Exchange Project?
JD: AEP is an organization trying to repair America’s division by connecting recent high school graduates. Kids from around the country visit your hometown for a week, and then you spend a week in another community much different from yours. Every kid that signed up went on a trip, completely free of charge (even the plane ticket!).
How did you hear about it?
JD: My Macroeconomics teacher hosted students for the past two years and talked about it in class. She made the exchange sound great, and 8 of us from Palo Alto signed up.
Who visited you in Palo Alto?
JD: We had seven visitors from: Wyoming, West Virginia, Texas, Kansas and Pennsylvania. This group included a Jehovah’s witness, people who had never seen an ocean, someone who had never been outside a Spanish-speaking community, and one who has enlisted in the Army.
What’d you do with the visitors in Palo Alto?
JD: We went camping in the redwoods, rode cable cars in San Francisco, went to the beach boardwalk in Santa Cruz, rode bikes, drank boba and enjoyed the beautiful California weather.
Where did you go on your trip?
JD: I went to Dillon, Montana, a town of about 4000 people. It was a gorgeous, outdoorsy place – and so different from home. I stayed on a 2000 acre ranch with 7 herding dogs and 30+ horses, where I drove a tractor, rode horses, and learned to irrigate crops. Pickup and diesel trucks easily outnumbered cars, and rodeo belt buckles were a regular sight.
What else did you do in Montana?
JD: I lit off fireworks on the 4th of July, went to the rodeo, tried shotgun trap shooting and fly fishing, and saw the bison and colorful pools in Yellowstone.
What are your take-aways from this exchange?
JD: I plan on keeping in touch with people from both weeks. We all have lots in common, despite being from different backgrounds and places all over the country. Definitely one of the coolest, craziest experiences of my life. Now I can say “Not my first rodeo” and mean it literally.