Local Coordinator Spotlight - Miranda Paul

Quest’s local coordinators are invaluable to us, as they play a crucial role in shaping our students’ experiences here in the U.S. They also happen to be a bunch of smart, caring, engaged people with a wide variety of interests and stories to tell. This new column will feature interviews with local coordinators from around the country. We’re kicking off our first interview with Miranda Paul from Wisconsin, who happens to be a host mom, too.

Quest: Why did you want to become a Quest local coordinator?

Miranda: Well, I was asked to be one -- both by the national Quest office and my local coordinator (I was hosting at the time). Neither of them knew that the other one mentioned the idea to me. But they seemed confident I was the right person for the job, and I said yes!

Quest: In addition to acting as a Quest coordinator, this is also your second year hosting a Quest student. Can you tell us about your family’s experience hosting?

Miranda: Actually, I'm glad that I became a host first and then a coordinator. Hosting is a challenging, but rewarding experience. Since my husband and I have young kids, it was a new experience to have a teenage boy in the house! And for our student, who doesn't have any siblings, it was a new experience for him as well!

Quest: What has been the most challenging part of working with international students?

Miranda: Communication. Not necessarily the language barrier (although that's often an issue), but the cultural adjustment of when to communicate, how to communicate, and what happens when there is lack of communication or miscommunication.  Even though I check in with my students every month (or more), a lot can happen in the course of a day or week if a student or parent doesn't check in.  Then things seem to "snowball."

Quest: What’s been most surprising?

Miranda: To have semester students like their stay so much they want to extend!

Quest: Most rewarding?

Miranda: When you see a host family and exchange student bond so well that you have an inkling that relationship will last long beyond the program!
 

Quest: What have you learned from your experiences working with international students, both as a host mom and local coordinator?

Miranda: How much there is to learn about other cultures, and how much is unknown (or misrepresented) about American culture!  I've also learned a lot of mediation skills, I think!

Quest: What advice would you give to new local coordinators?

Miranda: Communicate often, and make sure to do it in a variety of ways. Some students or host families prefer email, text messages, in-person or phone. Find out the way in which they are the most comfortable sharing information and speaking openly so that you can keep lines of communication open.

Quest: What do you do when you’re not “at” Quest?

Miranda: I'm a children's book author and an English teacher.

Interested in learning more about Miranda's children's books? Check out her website here.

Rebecca Troeger

Thanksgiving: a Worldly Holiday

Because eating is among my most prized activities, Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.  Thanksgiving is like the cherry on top of the fall season; it’s the finishing touch on the masterpiece that is fall. With vibrant leaves and rich, hearty fruits and veggies, such as squash, green beans, and yams, the fall season culminates at Thanksgiving.

We are taught in the U.S. that Thanksgiving was about the pilgrims and the “Indians” setting aside their weapons for one day and sharing a meal together.  The original Thanksgiving meal supposedly celebrated a bountiful harvest during that particular year. While I believe that story and I respect the historical significance, I think the holiday is more about gathering together with family and friends and recognizing all of the blessings that we have in this life. Specifically, we celebrate and show gratitude for food. In this way, it is not distinctly an American tradition.  Rather, this is something to which anyone from any part of the world can relate.  This thought led me to wonder: do other countries celebrate Thanksgiving?

A quick search on Google led me to the following results about celebrations of thanksgiving in a few of the countries from which QuestInternational receives exchange students.

China

The Chinese celebrate their version of Thanksgiving, Chung Ch’ui , on the day when the full moon falls within the 8^th month. The traditional meal includes a roasted pig, and several other traditions accompany this three-day ceremony. The celebration focuses on the idea of the bountiful harvest.

Korea

The Korean celebration of Chuseok, like Chung Ch’ui in China, is a three-day festival. It takes place during the Autumn Equinox.  In celebration of harvest, Koreans typically return to their birth-towns and celebrate with traditional food and variations of their famous rice wine.

Germany

Emtedankfest, or the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, is celebrated in early October, usually on the first Sunday. The celebration is usually centered at the Protestant  Johannesstift Church in Berlin, and includes a few religious services, food, dancing, and a lantern and touch parade.

Canada

The Canadian Thanksgiving is held on the second Monday in October.  Some historians claim that the celebration dates back to 1578 (for context, the U.S. holiday was said to have originated in 1621) when the explorer Martin Frobisher arrived in Canada on an exploration for a northern route from Europe to Asia.

While the distinctly American tradition of eating turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and squash on the fourth Thursday of November might be a new experience for our students, the celebration of giving thanks for the gift of food and family will be quite familiar.  If you would like to elaborate on any of the traditions outlined above, or share your own culture's version of Thanksgiving, please leave us a comment - we would love to learn more!

We wish students, host families, coordinators, and our school partners a wonderful day tomorrow.  We are grateful for everyone who helps to make this program a success!

Shayna Ferullo

Economic Crisis Spur Spaniards to Prepare for a Different Future

It’s hard to avoid the headlines these days about the turmoil and unrest in Southern Europe, namely in Greece, Portugal and Spain. Truly, economic indicators in Spain are bleak.  Unemployment has been hovering around 25 percent since January 2012, and unemployment for residents under the age of 25 is estimated at over 50 percent. With echoes from the US presidential election, whereby the discourse focused on the “deplorable” unemployment rate of 8 percent, it’s hard to imagine a world in which one in four of your adult friends are without work.

With the burst of Spain’s own housing bubble in 2008, international factors like the imminent recessions in the U.S. and Eurozone only contributed to a rapid downward spiral that has essentially lasted until today.  Spanish banks, once noted for their trustworthy, conservative practices, loosed restrictions during the housing bubble to encourage more home-ownership; therefore a financial crisis accompanied a recession in 2008 (very similar to what we experienced here in the U.S.). The announcement of a European bail-out plan this past summer calmed some fears that this important European economy would fall further into crisis. Of course, austerity measures are part of the plan, and this threatens to slow the recovery with sharp reductions in government spending or “stimulus.” Some forecasts say that there won’t be any improvement in Spain until at least 2014.

Spain has been noted, and often criticized, for its very liberal immigration policies compared to its European neighbors. Typically a large recipient of mass-immigration, especially in the early 2000s from South American nations, Spain today is experiencing net emigration, with residents seeking opportunities and employment abroad.  According to estimates by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), approximately 178,021 immigrants came to Spain in the first 6 months of 2012, and approximately 269,515 emigrants left the country, seeking opportunities abroad during that same period.  Foreign workers from Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, and Colombia are returning home to find more opportunities in their growing South American economies.

How will this affect student exchange from Spain?  One might think that a weakened economy might lead to families tightening discretionary spending and opting not to send their students abroad. However, Quest International is seeing noticeable signs that high school student exchange is following emigration patterns: that is, the number of students seeking exchange experiences is seemingly increasing!  According to one of our trusted partner agencies, Spanish residents are considering every and any opportunity to advance their education and employment prospects.  This means that learning and perfecting English language-abilities and immersing themselves in a new culture are overt goals of more and more Spanish residents. They see abroad experiences as the key to a successful future both for themselves and for Spain on a whole.

QuestInternational is currently developing a short-term academic program, whereby students will come during the academic year for programs that last 1 to 3 months.  The idea is that younger students can have an American experience without committing to studying for a full year or a semester overseas.  They can enjoy a flavor of life in the US, practice their English skills, and engage with an American family.  Initial responses from Spain are quite positive, and in fact, there are already organized groups of students ready to come to the US as soon as we give them the go ahead!

Quest International values our partnerships in Spain as well as our vibrant Spanish students that we receive yearly into our F1 program.  While we certainly empathize with the dire economic conditions that Spain faces today, we are encouraged and inspired to learn that Spanish residents are looking to the future and investing in their own education and cultural experiences. We agree that this will pave the way for better individual career opportunities and a better Spain on the whole. We are excited and honored to help develop affordable and enriching programs for both children and adults seeking experiences in the U.S.  Please contact us at info@questexchange.org if you would like to play a role in developing an exchange program for Spanish students in your community!

Shayna Ferullo

Chinese Students in the U.S: Lost in the Masses

The number of Chinese students studying in American high schools has grown exponentially in the past few years, due to a perfect storm of factors – China’s rising middle class, changes in U.S. student visa policies, a growing emphasis on global education here in the U.S, and some schools’ struggles with decreasing enrollment. According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2005-2006 there were just 65 Chinese students studying at American high schools; during the 2010-2011 school year this number increased more than 100 times to 6,725 students.[1]

As the Chinese market has opened up and the popularity of international student programs has grown, some schools have become so focused on the financial benefits of enrolling more Chinese students that they’ve lost sight of the human elements of cultural exchange. At some high schools, such as the Knox School in NY, over half of the student body hails from China.[2] When a particular nationality is disproportionately represented in this way, it is likely that international students will be seen by local students, teachers, and administrators as an indistinct mob rather than individual children with fears, hopes, and very different personalities and needs. As a result, resentment may build; there may be a perception that Chinese students are “taking over,” or “taking opportunities away” from local students. An important opportunity for cross-cultural communication, friendships, and understanding is then lost.

It is also nearly impossible for international students to experience American culture in a meaningful way when their school is saturated with students from their home country. One Chinese student, who I’ll call Jack, applied to Quest’s program last spring with the explicit goal of transferring to a school with fewer Chinese students; his first American school had upwards of 80 students from China. Jack told me that he had absolutely no idea his American school would have so many Chinese students prior to his departure for the U.S. When he arrived he was severely disappointed to find that his dorm roommates were Chinese, as were the majority of his classmates. He rarely had the opportunity to “touch” American life, he told me. He was diligently studying English but had few chances to use the language in “real life” situations with Americans his own age.

I believe that high schools should embrace the opportunity to bring Chinese and other international students on campus, but that they should do so thoughtfully and with a measure of caution. Below are some factors high schools may want to keep in mind while developing an international student program:

• Consider setting a nationality cap. Is there a maximum number of students of a given nationality that you could accept before it will become difficult for them to integrate into American life? If so, what is that number? Consider starting small and increasing your maximum number slowly, based on your school’s experiences and observations.

• Examine your international student support services. Whether you have staff dedicated solely to serving international students, work with an organization such as Quest, or employ a combination of these methods, think seriously about the support infrastructure you have in place and whether it is adequate to provide robust care to the number of students you decide to accept to your school.

• Re-evaluate goals. Reflect on why you want to bring international students to your school in the first place. Is your goal to give local students more global exposure, complement foreign language curriculum, or increase diversity? Is it to build enrollment and bring in more revenue? All or none of the above? Seek to continually define your international student program’s raison d’être as it grows and changes. There’s nothing wrong with being driven by goals that benefit your immediate community, as long as you don’t forget the importance of serving your international students and giving them a real chance to feel a part of your community, too.

Chinese families are choosing to send their children to American high schools because they hold our system of education, and the flexibility, creativity, and encouragement of individual expression it offers, in high regard. We need to honor the trust these families have placed in us by nurturing their children’s individuality and making a commitment to providing them with personal care and support. With more Chinese students flocking to U.S. schools every year, our handling of this issue will not only shape the lives of many individual students, but may also influence China’s perception of the U.S. at a time when strong Sino-U.S. relations are crucial.

-- Rebecca Troeger

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[1]Gao, Helen. “How China’s New Love Affair with U.S. Private Schools is Changing Them Both.” TheAtlantic. 28 March 2012. Web. 7 Nov 2012.

[2] Golden, Daniel. “Chinese Students Lose as U.S. Schools Exploit Need.” Bloomberg News. 19 Oct 2011. Web. 7 Nov 2012.