International Youth Exchange 2010-2011

Becoming an exchange student opens up your eyes

I think that becoming an exchange student is a wonderful opportunity to explore a new culture, language, and people. I am from Tunisia and have had the chance to study in France and the United-States. These experiences have really made a difference in my life. 
Living in France was a wonderful experience in terms of exploring the country's history, art, gastronomy and architecture. Paris is one of the most amazing cities I have ever lived in. It is just a fascinating and vibrating city with so many people from different cultures. An amazing feeling I had there was when I would walk these thousands years old Parisian streets, where you could feel that history has really shaped everything surrounding you. All the people I met there enriched my social experience and made me more tolerant.
Living in the United States has also been a great experience, I have lived in San Francisco, California for 4 years now. This city has similarities with Paris in terms of cultural diversity. Its hippy culture is one of the most interesting things I have discovered and the people are so open-minded, even more than in Paris.
Living abroad can be difficult but it can really open your eyes. For instance, leaving my parents made me realize how much I love and care about them. It has also made me stronger and more mature.
Overall, no matter where you choose to study abroad, you will always learn many things about the other's culture in which you live. You will become more independent, tolerant, and more appreciative of what you have and what life gave you.


Written by: Taysir El Abed

Quest Hangs with Students and Their Families!

Getting to know our exchange students is what Quest is all about! We want to make sure that we engage with all of our students and ensure they are having a great experience studying in the U.S. This week, we checked in with student Su Hwan Kim and his dad Sung Lee. What a great time!

Sung Li with Quest team members Shayna, Katie and Eric.

Tips for Making Friends in the U.S.

Americans are extremely friendly people. They are outgoing, polite, will say hello when they meet someone new, and will always ask you how you are doing... However, it is sometimes confusing for foreigners to understand that people in the U.S. seem so friendly up front when you are not actually close with them. Often, foreigners may think that Americans can be superficial in their interactions, but this is not the case at all! Initial friendliness or inquiry about your day is just the American way of being polite or saying hello, even if it does not always indicate a deeper connection. In the U.S., people often use the phrase "being acquaintances" to describe this sort of interaction with people you know but not very well. An acquaintance is someone you have literally just "become acquainted with". You probably see them in your daily day and they will always greet you, but they have not yet become a genuine friend of yours. In the school setting, acquaintances often form because of the fact that throughout a day, students in American schools will be in many different classes with entirely different groups of people all day long, so it is important to be friendly with all the people around you, but it is nearly impossible to become friends with everyone. In America, if you would like to make a new friend and really get to know someone, you just have to be assertive about it. Putting in the effort to build a close relationship with them is something you will never regret!

American Customs

The U.S. is a incredible place made up of people from all over the world and customs different from any other country. As a foreign exchange student, it may at times to be difficult to know how to do something "The American Way". So, here are a few tips to help you fit the part of being a student in America!

Greeting: Americans are less intimate in greeting each other than people from other countries. While many Europeans, for example, greet people they know or even people they have just met with a kiss on each cheek, Americans generally greet each other with just a simple handshake to say hello. Females, close friends, and family members usually hug upon meeting. Males, even that know each other very well, might still just shake hands - or they often have a special combination of a handshake and a shoulder pat hug for just their close male friends.

Being on time: Americans are very timely! It is considered quite rude to be late to meet a friend, go to an appointment, or be in class. The one exception is at a party, where people may start to arrive up to an hour after the time the party started - a concept known as being "fashionably late".

Alcohol and cigarrettes: In the United States, people must be 18 to buy cigarettes, and 21 to buy alcohol. This means that people younger than this would never be seen socializing at a bar or a club like they might be in other parts of the world. To entertain themselves, young people often go to drink coffee together, grab a smoothie, hit up the mall, or go to the movies.

Sports: Lots of young students in the U.S. are on a sports team at their school. For American students, this is a great way to make close friends and have a group of fun people to hang out with. Sports events are very important for schools, too. Students and teachers gather to watch their school's teams play, making an event to bring everyone together.

Holidays: Americans LOVE holidays - they celebrate not just their own, but also holidays of other countries! In the United States, people do everything from celebrating St. Patricks Day (a typical Irish holiday) by dressing all in green and shamrocks, to Cinco de Mayo (Mexican independence day) by eating Mexican food and wearing sombreros.

The most important thing to know, is that Americans are very open people! So, even if you don't learn all of the customs in the U.S., you will be well received by all of the new people around you.

Quest Student Joshken is Making Headlines!

Quest students are studying hard all over the United States this school year! Each one of them brings their unique personalities and international cultures to other students, host families, and communities throughout the country. International students add diversity to a plethora of schools that, because of them, are learning about parts of the world they have never before experienced! Joshken is one of our amazing students from Thailand - he is attending 7th grade at Community Christian School. Quest is so excited for Joshken to be the first of hopefully many international students at Community Christian School! The principal was kind enough to share with us this great newspaper bit about how well Joshken is doing at his new school - check out that grin!

BEGONIAS PART 5: An Incredible Festival

The Capitola Begonia Festival held this weekend was quite the event! 7 teams competed for the prize of best begonia-covered float, but the BOB team that was supporting Quest impressed everyone with their Ballet at the Beach float, taking in the first prize! The win will allow Quest to award a deserving student with a scholarship to study in the US, so we are all very proud and excited about the float-building victory!

A beautiful morning with fields full of begonias.

All colors of the rainbow represented!

Quest President Lisa Laviolette hard at work!

Quest was very grateful for all of the volunteers.

Can you find Viggo?

Lisa shooting us a smile.

Collin risking a swim to put on a few last begonias.

Almost ready!

Quest marketing intern Ty showing his support.

All of our hardworking ballerinas.

The whole team!

A little dance.

Smiling for a proud BOB victory!

The ballerina muse.

We are all so happy for the victory that will allow a foreign student to come to the US!

BEGONIAS PART 4: Checking out the competition!

The BOB team was an impressive contender at the Capitola Begonia Festival this weekend! We must admit, however, that the competition was definitely bringing their A-game as well. Here are the other floats and teams we were up against:

Rock Around the Clock

Jungle Boogie

Hoedown on the River

Spirit of Dance

My Thai on the Beach

Capitola Locomotion

BEGONIAS PART 3: Under Construction...

Building a float is serious business! The BOB team has been busy crafting the perfect begonia-covered float all week. The float must be built and covered in faux flowers, all to be attached and removed in order to replace them with begonias on the day of competition! Here is a little recap of the team's progress:

 STEP 1: SET IT UP!

Crafting table to cut all of the wooden pieces for the inside of the float.

Definitely mean business with this device used to cut wood supports.

Chicken wire for around the feet, color-coded for flowers. 

STEP 2: PIECE EVERYTHING TOGETHER...

Every piece cut and measured to perfection.

Volunteers of all ages getting involved in this project for this good cause!

Lisa Laviolette showing her support!

It's all coming together...

STEP 3: PREPARE FOR THE FLOWERS!

A "B" for Begonia of course.

Lisa hard at work!

Flowers for the sides of the float.

The foot is up!

BEGONIAS PART 2: Begonia Float Building Begins!

The Capitola Begonia Festival is fast approaching, and this week the Hammer Family team spent many laborious hours planning and executing the construction of an extremely impressive begonia-covered float. The team has cleverly named themselves Begonias on the Beach (BOB), and is titling the float "Ballet at the Beach".

Ballet at the Beach will be an image of two ballerina feet dancing. The float will be manned with three handsome guys clad in tutus and army boots, the perfect way to complete the dainty ballerina image! The ballerina feet were crafted out of a replica of Quest president Lisa Laviolette's actual feet! The BOB team made a mold out of Lisa's feet and then used extensive measurements, calculations, and computer programming to create an exact 6-foot copy for the float.

The initial design for the Ballet on the Beach.

Casting the foot.

Lisa's foot!

First steps to the creation of the 6-foot tall ballerina version of Lisa's foot.

BEGONIAS PART 1: Quest Gets Involved with Capitola Begonia Festival!

Capitola, California is the original birthplace of the Pacific Begonia. This beautiful flower was the catalyst for the development of the historic Capitola Begonia Festival. The festival is a celebration of the begonia flower that has taken place every summer since the 1950's - it is a time for festivities, delicious foods, dance, music, and most importantly, float building!

Every year, ambitious float building teams gather to craft an amazing array of begonia-inspired floats for competition. The floats are judged based on 5 categories: theme development, originality of design, floral coverage, effective use of flowers, and showmanship. The winning float will be awarded a cash prize that may be donated to a charitable foundation or non-profit.

This year, Quest is very excited and appreciative to be the nominated as the non-profit recipient of any prize awarded to the float designed by the Hammer Family float-building team! If the Hammer Family float wins, Quest will create a scholarship to enable an international student to come to the United States to study. We are all very excited for this opportunity, and we're crossing our fingers for float prize domination!

CHECK IT OUT! 
http://www.begoniafestival.com/index.html

Choosing a University in the US: Rural vs. Urban?

The US offers an immense variety of options for international students who are hoping to attend an American University. Students may pick from small schools in rural areas, to larger schools in big cities, and everything in between. The location of a university has a huge impact on not only the educational experience that a student has, but also the social dynamic they will see, the people they will meet, and the post-graduate work environment that they will be exposed to. So, here is an analysis of the two, to help a student evaluate if a university in an urban environment or a rural environment would suit their needs better.

Urban: Urban universities are located in cities around the US. Attending this type of university, you can expect:

• Generally relatively large schools
• Schools that are known for programs in business, law, and international languages
• Convenient public transportation
• Extensive internship and job opportunities
• Big business locations
• Higher cost of living and housing
• Higher cost of tuition
• Large amount of majors to choose from
• Fast pace of life
• Importance of university sports teams and sporting events
• Many options for fun activities, entertainment, art, culture, and music
• Variety of spoken languages
• Larger class sizes
• Large amount of international people and students

Rural: Rural universities, on the other hand, are located in the more remote areas of the US. Attending this type of university, you can expect:

• Relatively small-sized schools
• Small towns where university students make up a significant amount of the population
• Schools that are known for programs in agriculture, sciences, and nature
• More calm pace of life
• Lower cost of living and housing
• Lower cost of tuition
• Close contact and accessibility of staff and other students
• More limited amount of majors to choose from
• Friendly, small town people
• More homogenous populations
• Small campuses with a community feel
• Individual attention to students
• Smaller class sizes
• Opportunities to explore nature and outdoor activities

Wherever you may end up, if you have motivation and a good attitude, you will also achieve success. Nonetheless, it is always important to consider where you will find yourself more comfortable in order to find this success!

SO MANY AMERICAN SITES TO SEE!

Coming to the United States as an exchange student is an incredible opportunity to see some of the amazing sites that the country has to offer. No matter where you may be going to studying in the US, there will be something in your neck of the woods or within traveling distance that you will not be able to pass up seeing! Here are a few of the good ones:

The Statue of Liberty: Colossal statue located in New York City, originally given to the US by France.



Times Square: Bustling part of New York City, flooded with stores, lights, billboards, and people from around the world.


Niagara Falls: Gorgeous waterfalls bordering Canada and the US.


The Grand Canyon: A geographically incredible region of Arizona shaped by beautiful canyons and scenery.


The Washington Memorial: Monument in Washington D.C. created to commemorate President Washington.


The Golden Gate Bridge: Scenic bridge full of bike riders, tourists, and San Franciscans alike.


Fisherman's Wharf: Well-known attraction in San Francisco bustling with people viewing shops, enjoying the waterfront, and filling up restaurants.


The Space Needle: Unique feature of the Seattle skyline with a view of the entire city, originally created for exposition in the World Fair.


Yosemite National Park: Awe-inspiring national park located in California.


The Plaza: Unique part of Kansas City, designed with architecture, tiles, and fountains to portray Seville, Spain.


Walt Disney World: Located in Orlando, Florida, a must see for any fun-going student.


Rocky Mountain National Park: Ideal location in Colorado for camping, hiking, and outdoor activity.