dear mums and dads of teenage adventurers out there!
our daughter at swiss state gymnasium wishes to spend a semester (she does IB and a whole year is not supported by her school) "as abroad as possible"
she is very attracted to New Zealand, possibly USA and in the third place Latin America. the choice of countries for six months unfortunately is limited, especially since she ideally would want to leave in the first semester of next year (ie leaving next summer) so as to be able to catch up when she returns before the end of the school year.
while she is away we would be able to host an exchange student.
now my husband and I are perfectly comfortable with the idea having both been AFS exchange students, active members, hosted, etc.
so I am wondering rather if anyone has had some advice regarding this experience within swiss school.
- which countries were involved?
- which organisation did you use and would you recommend it?
- was the child's schooling abroad recognized upon returning to swiss school or did they have to repeat a year?
- was it an overall positive experience for your family life?
- would you say there are "dangerous" countries you would never send your kids to?
thank you so much for any help - we are all very about this experience, but also a bit worried...
I was an exchange student with AFS when I was 16 yo (just a few years back ). Even though I ended up not going far (NC, USA to Quebec, Canada), it was an amazing experience and really had a lasting impact on my life's direction. I had wanted to go to France, as apparently did most American students at the time, so some of us were sent to the French-speaking part of Canada. I did have some issues with grades transferring upon my return - I spent my Junior year of high school there - however we were able to iron those issues out. My advice would be to go for a whole year - has always seemed to me that the hardest part of going to a new place is the first few months where you have to 'learn the ropes'. Seems that you only start reaping the fruits of your labor until after Christmas. Perhaps she could go for a year between high school and college? Good luck!
I know many people whose life was changed by this experience, including our own - that's how my husband and I met
I know that 6 months is not enough for a real "immersion" but on the other hand the youth of today (including my daughter) lives already in a much more globalised world where everyone is "nearer". I mean, when my husband left his small german village at 16 for Mexico City, now THAT was quite courageous... in the whole year he called home TWICE due to the high costs and wrote about 3 letters (they took weeks to arrive)
can you imagine today with skype, facebook, email ??? time will fly... also her mentality is less idealistic than ours at that time which in hindsight I think is better, especially for a woman.
I was an exchange student with YFU at 17 (back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth!) and I had an absolute blast -- the second six months were by far a lot more fun than the first.
While it's true that children these days are a lot more global, I would say that many of these experiences tend to be pretty generic: they go very far to hang out with the same type of crowd. For a real eye-opener, nothing beats living with another family, with circumstances different from your own, in a school system that is also different. As for schooling, I was able to arrange a deal with my original high school as well as with my host high school and didn't lose any time -- but you might have to repeat the year. In any case, I got into a way better university as a result -- either they valued they experience or they counted me as a "foreign" student.
The only thing I would suggest is don't go too young -- 17 going on 18 is perfect because the host family is a bit more relaxed and the youngster has that much more common sense. Not much but every bit helps.