Stories from Academic Year in America

Former Exchange Student Reflects on AYA Experience—Thirty Years Later!

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As Academic Year in America celebrates 35 years of enriching lives through international high school exchange, we are thrilled to be hearing from so many former students about the wonderful impact our program has had on their lives. Today, we are lucky to share this article by an … [Read more...]

Halfway Through the Year – YES Student Shares Observations

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The following blog post was written by Fira, a YES student from Indonesia living with her host family in South Carolina. Fira has a lot to say about how much her Local Coordinator, host family and exchange community mean to her as she reflects on reaching the halfway point in her … [Read more...]

Local Coordinators: Important Advocates for Cultural Exchange

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In today's very complicated, social and political climate, we want to take this opportunity to recognize the work our Local Coordinators are doing to help our international students and local host communities process and understand events and trends impacting us all. These are … [Read more...]

Why Hosting Matters: Khaled’s Story

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The following article was contributed by Terri, a Local Coordinator from New York reflecting on how overcoming jitters to host an exchange student opens up the opportunity of a lifetime. I suppose you could think of a lot of reasons why you might not host an exchange student. … [Read more...]

Meet the Winner of the AYA Halloween Costume Contest!

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Every year, AYA exchange students are immersed in Halloween traditions in the United States: pumpkin carving, corn mazes, trick-or-treating, dressing up in costume and more. This year, we decided to have a Halloween Costume Contest for AYA students and host families across the … [Read more...]