Putting The Exchange In Foreign Exchange

Jan. 29, 2016

Way More Foreign Students Come To Northern Michigan To Study Than The Other Way Around

An exchange usually means something traded for something equivalent. Yet, when it comes to cultural exchanges in northern Michigan, far more foreign students come here to study than local students leave for experiences abroad.

Take Traverse City Area Public Schools, for example. There are roughly 40 Chinese students attending high school in the district; there are no students from TC enrolled in China.

Rotary Charities seeks to stem this trend by running a foreign exchange program that’s unique among those operating in the area, striving to send as many kids overseas as they host from other countries.

This school year, Rotary is hosting three foreign students in Traverse City. At the same time, there are students from Traverse City Central High School and Traverse City West Senior High School studying through Rotary’s foreign exchange program in Brazil, Germany and Columbia.

"We have four out right now and six going out in August," said Steve Alexander, youth exchange officer for the Rotary Club of Traverse City.

NOT EXACTLY AN EXCHANGE

The number of foreign students who study in Michigan versus the number of Michigan students who go abroad is out of balance. Michigan hosted 2,683 foreign students in the 2014–2015 school year, second only to California. In the same period, just 43 Michigan students studied abroad, according to the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET.)

There are many reasons for that. American high school students feel they already have too much to do and can’t afford to spend a year away. Some students worry that if they miss an advanced math or science class, they will be penalized in college admissions. It’s expensive to be an exchange student and American students are more likely to study abroad in college, making it less urgent to accomplish this in high school.

Perhaps more significant, American students don’t have the incentive of students from other countries because they already speak English. Foreign students often come here to learn the language.

"I think students from other countries, other cultures – the students typically want to learn English in school," said Marsha Minervini, a foreign exchange student counselor volunteer with Rotary who has hosted students since the early 1980s. "In other cultures, English is very important because English is the language of business in the world."

COMPETING FOR HOST FAMILIES

Alexander believes another reason for the disparity is money. Many programs sustain themselves from fees they earn by finding host families to place foreign students.

"We’re the only volunteer organization," Alexander said of Rotary. "The others are not-for-profit, but the others, up and down, the people all along the way earn their livings doing the programs. First things first; it’s a money maker for them."

That means that people earn their living from organizations that depend on finding host families in order to survive. That puts them in competition with Rotary and TCAPS and every other group looking to convince families to open their homes to foreign students.

Alexander said since TCAPS started its own foreign exchange program several years ago, Rotary and TCAPS now compete to find host families.

"It was interesting, as soon as the high schools announced their program, I was talking to the principals and I said, "˜Hey, how’s the Chinese student thing going?’ and they said, "˜Man, finding host families is hard.’ And I said "˜No kidding. That’s the issue,’" Alexander said. "So they don’t have as many kids here as they would otherwise because of the challenge of finding hosts."

Nonetheless, he said, TCAPS has been willing to work with Rotary’s program for students headed abroad and helps them place foreign students in the high schools.

"They treat us well," Alexander said. "We’ve had other (districts) around here say, "˜We don’t like Rotary very much because you take our kids and they take our headcount.’"

TOO BUSY FOR HOMESICKNESS

The three Rotary exchange students in Traverse City this year are Greta Neff of Bonn, Germany; Eva Gutierrez of Malaga, Spain; and Vanessa Wen of Batan, Indonesia. Each of the 16-year-olds says she’s been too busy at Traverse City Central and having too much fun to get homesick.

They were drawn by adventure and the chance to improve their English.

"My two brothers did it three years and seven years ago and we had a lot of exchange students at our house when I was young," Neff said.

"I was really interested in going overseas since I was a child," Wen said. "I wanted to improve my English."

"My sister was an exchange student, too, and I visited her when she was here. She was in Iowa and I saw that she was so happy," Gutierrez said.

As Rotary exchange students, they spend several months with three host families throughout the school year, are in regular contact with a counselor who makes sure they are doing okay, and attend five Rotary weekend events with other exchange students from Michigan and Ontario.

Minervini is a supporter of Rotary exchange programs because she believes they give more support to host families and students than other organizations.

Minervini said many of the exchange students she has hosted were "rescue" cases, foreign students placed in unsuitable homes by another nonprofit placement group.

"I’ve had a number of rescue students from other programs where kids were placed in not very good homes," Minervini said. "If any of my grandkids wants to be an exchange student, I wouldn’t use anybody but Rotary, though there are some other good programs."

There are a lot of programs to choose from; CSIET lists 36 organizations that are able to assist Michigan families interested in hosting a foreign student visiting on a cultural exchange visa.

CHINESE STUDENTS AT TCAPS

When TCAPS’ Chinese program kicked off in 2013, then-Superintendent Steve Cousins said his goal was to see as much as 7.5 percent of the TCAPS high school population comprised of foreign students.

With around 1,500 students at West and 1,600 at Central, to achieve that goal would mean bringing 232 foreign students to the school. The program has not come close to reaching that goal, said Joe Tibaldi, director of international programming for the district.

Tibaldi said he was not aware that was ever a district goal. There are not enough host families to reach that number, he said.

There is great incentive for TCAPS to bring Chinese students to the district. According to a 2013 memorandum of understanding between the district and Beijing Weiming Education Group, Chinese students pay $10,000 in annual tuition.

The students are also taking up seats on student count day, when enrollment is measured for the purpose of calculating state funding.

"It helps keep our TCAPS enrollment from declining as much as other school districts around the state," Tibaldi said.

Tibaldi said he is disappointed that so few TCAPS kids want to become foreign exchange students, and he said he hopes exposure to foreign students will spark more interest.

"We just have not been able to encourage that aspect to our students as much as we’d like to," Tibaldi said. "In China, even in Europe, it’s not unusual for students to participate in international exchange programs and that’s why we have so many more students over here."

Tibaldi said he hopes to expand TCAPS’ foreign exchange program to include more countries.

"We’re in a global world; our students are not going to do work only in the United States or only in Michigan or only in Traverse City," he said.

Vanessa Wen, of Batan, Indonesia - Greta Neff, of Bonn, Germany - Eva Gutierrez, of Malaga, Spain

FOREIGN STUDENTS ENRICH LELAND

Leland High School has accomplished what TCAPS officials set out to achieve several years ago. This year, 7.5 percent of Leland’s grade 9–12 students are there via a foreign exchange program.

Nine of Leland’s 120 students are guests from foreign countries this year, said Principal Charlie Gann.

"It’s just a program that we really value. It’s just a plus," he said. "Usually, on a year-in-and-year-out basis, we’ll have at least six exchange students and this year we’ve got nine."

Gann said there was never really a plan to make the foreign exchange program a priority. He’s been at the school since 1995 and he said the first foreign exchange student he recalls – a kid from Germany – came in 1998. It worked out really well and they decided they should do it again.

"It just kind of grew. We had a couple of kids from Germany early on. We really liked it and we wanted to give our kids a more global perspective," Gann said. "Leland is a great place. It’s awesome, but it’s just one tiny piece of the world."

Leland’s foreign students this year hail from Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Thailand. They are placed there through a variety of foreign exchange nonprofits, including Rotary.

Gann said one of the reasons Leland has such a robust foreign exchange program is because the school has never had a problem finding host families.

"We’ve had people do it multiple times; we’ve had new people every year," he said.

Despite the success, Gann said there hasn’t been as much interest from Leland student in embarking on a study abroad program. In a typical year, one or two students might study in a foreign country; this year there are no students abroad.

Gann suspects that may be because, for some families, placement in a foreign exchange program is too expensive – it can run in the thousands of dollars – and because American students tend to get busy with their lives.

"There’s quite a financial cost to send your kid out," he said. "We have a lot more coming in than going out."