Welcome the world
It has been eight years since The Sharon Academy last hosted exchange students during the 2015-16 school year. The experience was an appreciated opportunity to connect our Vermont students to people from foreign countries and diverse cultures. Now, after this long hiatus, the school is thrilled to reinstate the program by welcoming Aleyna Aydogan and Mariam Gurchumelia for the 2023-24 school year. Both girls are in Vermont with full scholarships from the US Department of State. Applicants compete for these scholarships through a rigorous, merit-based selection process.
Mariam turned 17 soon after she arrived in Vermont from the country of Georgia. She is in the United States under the auspices of the U.S., State Department’s Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, established after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. to improve mutual understanding and develop and strengthen long-term relationships between citizens of the United States and the people from the former Soviet Socialist Republic countries. There are currently 22 countries that participate in the FLEX program.
Aleyna, 15, is from Turkey with the U.S. State Department’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program, established after the events of September 11, 2001, to foster understanding with primarily Muslim countries and advance the U.S. foreign policy goals of promoting civil society and youth leadership development. Since 2003, nearly 13,000 students from over 45 countries have participated in YES.
Since the end of August, Mariam and Aleyna have been living with TSA Digital Media Manager Wendy Spector and her husband in Woodstock. Although Wendy and Jon no longer have children at home, they hosted high school exchange students when their children were in middle and high school, and Wendy was an exchange student in Germany when she was fifteen. Their six years living overseas in Asia reinforced their interest and commitment to engaging with people from different cultures and helping those who are interested in understanding America and American culture.
Mariam and Aleyna were both already well-versed in American culture and fluent in English when they arrived. They have jumped right into classwork, making friends, and extra-curricular activities. They joined the Girls’ Varsity soccer team at school, are volunteering in the community, and look forward to being active participants in the high school’s Interim production of Disney’s musical, Freaky Friday. The Spectors were prepared to introduce them to American culture through television and movies but the girls were already very familiar with the canon. In fact, they have been watching Grey’s Anatomy together, one of Mariam’s favorite shows, which the Spectors had never seen! Since their arrival, the girls have also traveled with the Spectors to meet their host siblings, enjoyed sampling restaurants serving Turkish and Georgian cuisine, tasted Indian cuisine for the first time, learned how to use chopsticks, and experienced Wicked on Broadway.
Although the girls were familiar with American culture, they both come from big cities so living in rural Vermont has been a revelation. Mariam shared, “My exchange year in the U.S. is going great. It’s an amazing experience. Every day is exciting, filled with diverse cultures, nice people, and many small new adventures. Vermont is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. I love the small towns and communities here and I’m enjoying sharing my culture, language, and traditions with the people I meet.”
For her part, Aleyna was equally enthusiastic. “It has been one month since I arrived here, and it has become one of my best months ever. I got to do things that I had never tried before; I am so grateful that I am a part of this exchange program and year. Every day I see, try, and learn different things, and also share my culture with others. Being able to see the differences in cultures makes me feel even more excited and grateful.”
While Wendy and Jon love having the teens enliven their household, the girls look forward to experiencing other family units, especially ones with children. Being a host family is straightforward: hosts must provide a bed, three meals a day, transportation to and from TSA, and a willingness to share their family life, culture, and attention, as well as an openness and curiosity about their exchange student’s culture and personality. The girls will be available to change homes starting January 2024, and/or visit with families for certain days or weeks at a time. Families interested in becoming a long-term or short-term host to one or both girls can contact TSA Head of School Mary Newman for more details.