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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Spotlight: GYSD 2015............................1

Community Service Highlights..............2

A Year of Changes.................................3

Your Exchange Experience....................4

Re-Entry Workshop Photo Highlights...5

InternatIonal Student Support teamSprIng 2015 newSletter

Global Youth Service Day is a day when everybody should open their hearts and serve all the needy people around them because it gives internal happiness to a person, and that’s my experience.

Planning: Each of the American Council exchange stu-dents in my cluster was given $20 by our Local Coordi-nator, Lin Strong. She decided to get as much stuff as possible and utilize the money in the best way possible. We went to a grocery store and everybody went to get household stuff for the community closet which was to be given to the needy people. After getting all the stuff and meeting at the counter, we were amazed to see two carts filled with a lot of groceries. It made us realize that if you have the courage to do something good, even money is never going to be a hurdle. Just step for-ward and take a positive step. After getting all the groceries, two of us (Abdirahman and I), along with Lin, volunteered to help pass out all the groceries for our project. We passed out a lot of stuff and I was very glad to make all those people happy because it was interesting for them to receive stuff from a foreigner.

Global Youth Service Day was another interesting expe-rience of my exchange year and I plan on doing a small but a productive project each year.

Spotlight: Global Youth Service Day 2015by Sumbul Ali, YES-Pakistan

Pictured above: Abdirahman Buul (YES-Kenya) and Sumbul, both placed in

Wisconsin, helping provide groceries to the hungry and homeless on GYSD

Each year, Youth Services America (YSA) organizes Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), the largest community service event for youth in the world. This year, it took place over April 17-19. Here is one student’s report.

Keep reading for more stories about your community service highlights throughout the year!

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Community Service HighlightsCommunity service is not just a requirement of your scholarship programs, but an important part of American culture. Year after year, our students report that community service made the biggest impact on their exchange experience. Here are just a few highlights from your year of community service activities.

WHAT TYPESof community service did you do?41% tutored or mentored62% helped the poor or homeless39% picked up trash17% cared for animals at animal shelters26% built homes for Habitat for Humanity51% assisted at churches13% spent time at hospitals30% visited elderly homes 72% fundraised at school or with other organizations in host communities58% performed community service at other places such as libraries, the Special Olympics, marathons, and local parks

your community service

BY NUMBERS8,950+: the total number of hours completed by students in 2014-201548: the number of students who reached 100+ hours365: most hours completed by one student: Mariem Mastouri, YES-Tunisia

March re-entry students at Food & Friends in Washington, DC

Students in Texas delivered socks to nursing home residents during the holiday season. They also wrapped presents for

charity and raised several thousand dollars.

Community service teaches us that our soci-ety is made by ourselves. A positive environ-ment will not exist just because of the rules, but because there are people that obey the rules or, in this case volunteer, that helped make the society better. I learned that volunteer-ing is one of the easiest things to contribute to your community. You don’t need money, you don’t need to be elected as a government staff, all you have to do is get out of your bed and volunteer anywhere as long as you have time to do it.Mahmud BaihaqiYES-Indonesia

We are here to learn more about American culture and community service is a big part of this culture. Through volunteering I met a lot of people, I learned a lot about places where I volunteered. And this experi-ence made me knowledgeable and showed me how diverse American culture could be. Dana SabitFLEX-Kazakhstan

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A Year of ChangesIn your April surveys, we asked you to reflect on how you had changed physically and

emotionally during your year as an exchange student in the U.S. Here is what you reported:

37% are taller

30% are more tanned

18% are less tanned

29% feel healthier

26% feel less healthy

10% have had dental work

6% have new glasses

45% have a new hairstyle

50% have a new clothing style

4% have not changed physically

2% have changed physically in other ways

87% are more confident

91% are more independent

82% express themselves better

60% love their home country more

67% understand their home country differently

I am ready to make my own decisions and do things I didn’t have courage or just didn’t think about them be-fore. It can be about new things I can do to my school, new personal view that I will share with my parents and friends, and things I can do to help my community.Dina AbazovicA-SMYLE-Montenegro

I am much more confident and clear about my own vision and future. I have things laid out in front of me and I will strive to achieve it.Afiqah MuhammedYES-Malaysia

I have learned how to understand people’s feelings and help them with their problems, so I can help my friends and relatives.Denis VishnyakovFLEX-Kazakhstan

I have learned to embrace differ-ences and that is important to me because now I can look at my country in a different way.Vlada UrsuFLEX-Moldova

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thanksYour Exchange Experience

We also asked you to think about your entire exchange year in your end-of-year reflection surveys. Below are some of our findings based on your answers:

71% rated their exchange year “excellent”

25% rated their exchange year “good”

17% felt the U.S. was whatthey expected

31% felt the U.S. was betterthan they expected

51% felt the U.S. was differentthan they expected

98% would recommend their exchange program to people in

their home countries

This year changed my life in the best possible way. It shaped me as a new person I have pleasure to be now. I loved every moment I spent here and the worst part is that now I have to use past tense to describe this amazing time.Kseniya YeltsovaFLEX-Russia

I will definitely recommend the YES program, because it is a chance to experience a different way of life, and people with more experiences have greater potentials.Hassan AbubakarYES-Nigeria

It feels like every day I spent in United States has been amazing. Probably the first day of school was the most exciting day. It was overwhelming. I could feel my heart beating fast and I was very nervous. But soon I realized there was nothing to feel nervous about. Everyone was friendly, teachers, students, and they were really interested in me.Enxhi NikollaYES-Albania

I cannot for the life of me think of a single moment of my entire stay that can be pointed out as the best moment of the entire experience. And I love that. That means that all the times I was happy and all the times I’ll recall back home have been so reoccurring and common while I’ve been here that they all blend together. It means that the moments I spent laughing in the hallway or classroom or library with my friends blended with road trips and dinners and parties and long talks with host parents and combined themselves with all the times I looked out the window or ran a mile or walked a path or drove down to school and thought: “I’m happy”.Katarina MezejA-SMYLE-Serbia

89% said their exchange program met their expectations with regard to their host families

88% said their exchange program met their expectations with regard to their LC

90% said their exchange program met their expectations with regard to their school

One of my favorite days in the U.S. was definitely the re-entry workshop. I really love meeting all the other exchange students and getting to share my expe-riences and hearing their experiences, I loved making lifetime long friends and finally meeting the American Councils staff in person and of course having fun at the workshop!Justas TarozaExCEL-Lithuania

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March Re-Entry WorkshopHighlights

Clockwise from top left: Yusnitafili Harefa (YES-Indonesia) and Hassan Abubakar (YES-Nigeria); group photo at 4-H; Saina Abdollahzadeh and

Arvin Jafari Momtaz (Cultural Bridges-Iran/Georgia); Djordje Spasic (A-SMYLE-Serbia), Dina Abazovic (A-SMYLE-Montenegro), and Edhem Avdagic (YES-Bosnia and Herzegovina); Denis

Vishnyakov (FLEX-Kazakhstan), AnastasiyaRozumna (FLEX-Ukraine), Andriy Terletskyy (FLEX-

Ukraine), Nelya Bechkalo (FLEX-Ukraine),Yekaterina Sysoyeva (FLEX-Russia), Filip Stefanovski

(YES-Macedonia), and Viktor Holyanych (FLEX-Ukraine)

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April Re-Entry WorkshopHighlights

Clockwise from top left: Yuliya Sklyarenko (FLEX-Ukraine) and Ibrahim Amin (YES-Lebanon);

group photo at 4-H; Roza Nseir (YES-Israel Arab Communities), Dovudjon Mirzoolimov (FLEX-

Tajikistan), and Mamady Diaoune (YES-Senegal); group photo at 4-H

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Texas and Hawaii Re-Entry Workshop Highlights

Clockwise from top left: Sindi Bahshiyan (FLEX-Turkmenistan) at re-entry in San Antonio, TX; group photo of TX cluster; Karma Khalaf (YES-West Bank), Tijana Nikic (A-SMYLE-Serbia), Muhammad Khan

(YES-Pakistan), Roy Atallah (YES-Lebanon), and ShomeshTamilselvan (YES-Malaysia) at re-entry in Honolulu, HI; VerencyaOktaviani (YES-Indonesia), Benjamin Balboa III (YES-Philippines),Boubacar Dabo (YES-Mali), Zhanyl Tilekova (FLEX-Kyrgyzstan),

Saraswati Kumari (YES-India), Charnita Venudran (YES-Malaysia),Malik Pravinchandra (YES-Mozambique), and Anna Charbadze

(FLEX-Georgia) at re-entry in Honolulu, HI