Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

CITIZEN EXCHANGES –
YOUTH PROGRAMS DIVISION
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Programmatic Components

During various times throughout the academic year special training workshops are offered for selected students or for students who compete among the FLEX participants for the opportunity to attend these special events held in selected cities in the United States.

Language Enhancement and Independence Skills Training Workshops

Each year, there are a number of FLEX finalists who have excelled in the application criteria, but whose English language capability is somewhat weaker than the standard cutoff score. These students are identified to participate in a pre-program Language Enhancement (LE) workshop that is conducted by individual placement organizations in host communities. This workshop assists these students in meeting the demand of having sufficient comprehension in an English language classroom and provides the students with cultural tools and strategies that will foster a successful exchange experience. This special program component has enabled the FLEX program to maintain a diverse population of students, especially those from more remote regions of their countries where English language instruction may have been less rigorous than that provided in more urban areas.

In keeping with Bureau policy that diversity must be a priority in all sponsored programming, the FLEX program added its component for students with disabilities in 1996. Individuals with disabilities are treated very differently in Eurasia than they are in the U.S. To assure their success, placement organizations are responsible for conducting a Language Enhancement workshop and/or Independence Skills Training (IST) when they arrive in their host communities a few weeks before school begins. Mobility International USA will also provide organizations with ongoing support during the year.

Civic Education Workshop

Each year, students participating in the FLEX program are invited to meet with Washington leaders during a week-long Civic Education Workshop. The Civic Education Workshop enables participants to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of democratic concepts such as civic responsibility, citizen empowerment, volunteerism, and community action. The students win their places to the Civic Education Workshop through participation in an essay contest. Students are asked to write an essay about their experiences so far in the United States in order to win a place in the workshop..

Some of the highlights of their Washington experience included a meeting with State Department officials and a day on Capitol Hill where they met with members of Congress from their respective host states and districts. They also studied the media in a democratic society and visited the Newseum and heard a panel on the importance of a free press. In addition, they met with leaders of community service non-governmental organizations so they could learn about how to organize such an effort in their home countries. They also made study visits to monuments and other historical sites so they could put their experience in a context of what had gone before. Key to the workshop was discussions on how participants might take what they had learned back to their home countries.

Leadership Reentry Workshop for Students with Disabilities

Generally, FLEX participants with disabilities adjust well to American life and culture where society has taken many steps to support the disabled in becoming integrally involved in mainstream community life. However, after having enjoyed the accessibility and other supports that exist in the U.S., these students frequently are not well-prepared to return to the less disability-friendly environments of their home countries. The major purpose of this special reentry workshop is to help prepare them to do readjust to their home cultures.

This workshop is focused on reentry and transition to the home country of each student as a person with a disability. In addition to addressing the special emotional needs in making the transition home where the environment will likely be less accommodating, the goals of the disability workshop are to further develop leadership skills and foster empowerment, and to provide these students with tools that will enable them to do outreach and work in support of disability rights in their home countries. In 2004, this workshop was conducted in Eugene, Oregon by Mobility International USA.

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