Exchange program brings world to Mohawk Valley - Groups help students visit foreign countries

www.uticaod.com Sat, Mar 8, 2003 By KRISTA SEYMOUR Observer-Dispatch

When Paula Skibdon arrived in Deansboro last September, her reaction was one familiar to natives of Upstate New York.

"They told me that I was going to New York, and I said, yeah, New York City!" Skibdon said. "My host parents sent a post card with a picture on it of this town, but I still thought it would be close to the city, with lots of places to walk. I didn't really know how small it was until I got here."

Having grown up in San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica, the small-town lifestyle isn't the only adjustment Skibdon, 18, who attends Waterville High School, has endured as one of around 150 AFS Intercultural Program exchange students in New York state.

"It's so cold!" she said, fingering a postcard of a sun-drenched Costa Rican beach. "But I love being here because the experience is totally different than in my country."

Terrorist threats aimed at the United States didn't discourage Skibdon from spending the year away from home.

When deciding between New Zealand, Australia and the United States, her parents encouraged her to choose the United States.

"Even when I was applying, in the United States they were going through problems with Osama bin Laden and the bomb threat for the L.A. airport, but my parents still thought it would be safest here," Skibdon said.

This is a busy time of year for exchange programs.

AFS Intercultural Program is currently looking for host families for students like Skibdon and is also accepting applications from prospective students from around the world.

The Rotary Club organizes an exchange program that begins with a rigorous application program resulting in a scholarship for accepted students.

The Utica Rotary Club, the largest in the district for exchange partnership, is beginning the application process for students eyeing the 2004-05 school year.

For Vanessa Castillo, a Rotary exchange student from Venezuela, being placed in Utica was a welcome surprise.

"I was born in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and it was very dangerous there," said Castillo, age 18, who attends Whitesboro High School. "You couldn't go out at night. My mom went to school with me, and she even stayed with me in the classes because they steal kids from the schools there."

When she was 8, the family moved to Valenzia, a smaller city, after the family walked in on a robbery being carried out in their house.

"Nobody was hurt, but things like that happen all the time there," Castillo said.

The family feels safer in the smaller city, but, like other Venezeulans, still feel the dangers of kidnapping and violence.

"This was the dream of my life, to come to America," said Castillo, whose original trip to the U.S. was canceled after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When another opportunity came to travel with Rotary, she gladly accepted, even though it meant leaving her college studies for a year.

"In the embassy, there are maybe 200 people every day trying to get a visa to come to America," she said. "You pay so much money and they give you an interview for maybe three minutes. Some people get it, some people don't. It's luck. So now my friends tell me that I'm lucky. I feel lucky."

While Skibdon and Castillo were surprised by small-town life, Benjamin Hoff, a Rotary exchange student from Bocholt, Germany, was prepared for it.

"People in Europe sometimes think that America is all like Hollywood, but I knew what to expect," said Hoff, who agreed to come to the U.S. after his other options, Canada, India and South Africa, were ruled out. "At first I didn't want to come to America because I know that it's such a big place, and it's easy to end up in some really small town in the middle of nowhere. Clinton is bigger than a lot of places I could have been sent, so I'm enjoying it here."

Hoff, 18, attends Clinton High School.

Both Castillo and Hoff are living with their second host families. Rotary exchange students transition between three host families during the school year to ensure that they experience different lifestyles practiced in the United States.

"Ben has been with our family since Nov. 23," said Barbara Beigel, Hoff's current host mother. "It's been great. Having him here for Christmas was fabulous."

AFS students stay with one family for the year, and Skibdon is more than happy with the arrangement.

"I've found a second family here," she said, gesturing toward the many photos of her host family that fill her bedroom. "They ask my opinion in family decisions, and they say that I'm part of the family. I even call them mom and dad."

Recent terrorist activity and continued diplomatic tensions throughout the world have limited exchange programs based in the United States.

"The exchanges usually go both ways, but that is changing," said Nicole Ollman, Northeast manager for AFS. "We do get a small number of students from Egypt, but we don't send students there. We are considering exchanging with Tunisia, but are holding off for now."

Groups help students visit foreign countries

Groups that place students around the world have different criteria, but they all try to make the best matches possible.

AFS is an exchange organization that is allowed to send students to a country without accepting a student in return. Scholarship-based organizations, such as the Rotary program, send students to countries and are expected to accept one in their place.

Scholarships and financial aid are available for AFS and groups like it, said Nicole Ollman, Northeast manager for AFS, but students willing to travel to countries not usually picked are more likely to receive financial aid.

Otherwise, they are expected to provide for their personal expenses, while the host family offers free room and board.

Ollman said that many host families opt to accept a tax deduction for this service.

Shawki Elgarhi, chairman of the Youth Exchange Committee for Utica Rotary, said they only exchange with countries that maintain positive diplomatic relations with the United States.

Benjamin Hoff and Vanessa Castillo are the only Rotary students currently living in the Utica area, but there are five American students from the area studying abroad.

The exchange is one to one, but because other countries hold academic years at varied times, the number of outbound students is not always equal to the number of inbound students.

In addition to receiving a stipend, Hoff and Castillo will join other Rotary students from all over the U.S. for a tour of the country upon completion of the academic year. Until then, they are enjoying winter in Utica.

Hoff, who snowboards in Germany, is happy with the continued snowfall that provides him with plenty of chances to practice his sport. Castillo has discovered skiing.

"In Venezeula, we don't have seasons, but the two parts of the year are hot and humid, or hot and dry," Castillo said. "I'd never seen snow before, but I really like it. I like the shape. Skiing was really hard, but then I took lessons, and I like it. You can fall down and it's still OK."