Did You Know?

SHARE! sends evaluations to our participating students, host families and high schools both early in the program and then just prior to the end. The responses we’ve received both warm our hearts and provide insight to make improvements for the future.

 We are pleased to SHARE! some recent responses to warm your hearts as well. 

Host Families – Please describe the most satisfying aspect of hosting an exchange student

  •  We love being able to pour our love into a teenager from another culture.

  • Learning about different cultures. It was good for my kids and our student to make sacrifices for each other. It was like having another sibling. Great experience.

  • We have another daughter. We will for the rest of our lives. I cannot describe how much fuller our hearts are because of this process.

  • There are so many wonderful aspects, but the ones that are most satisfying are the ability to make a positive American impact and create fun and lasting memories!

Students - Describe some experiences that you will remember the most.

  • I think the first time that I met my new family. They change my experience, literally. And all the moments that we spent together; each one is a memory that I will bring with me forever.

  • One of my favorite experiences was marching band. Here I learned what it means to be part of a team that cares about what they are doing and that supports each other.

  • I would never forget my first times, my first football game, my first soccer game with my team, the trips I did, prom, homecoming. There are many experiences that I would never forget, and I am very thankful of having had the opportunity of living.

  • Prom was amazing: Spending time with my friends, all in gorgeous outfits, dancing, having fun. I also went to a Musical in Philadelphia with my host family which was really amazing and kind of blew my mind because I was stunned at how the actors could sing and dance that well at the same time.

High Schools – Additional Comments

  • We very much enjoyed having her be a part of our high school. She made friends easily and was involved in many of our student organizations.

  • He was a fantastic exchange student, and he will be missed.

  • Awesome young lady! Enjoyed having her here.

  • She was a terrific student. She was very pleasant and always had a smile. I truly wish the best for her; she will be great no matter where she lands one day.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to 2021-2022 SHARE! student, Juliane Seng, for being a semi-finalist in this year's CSIET Art Cover Design Contest! Her two submissions are below for you to enjoy.

2022 ART COVER CONTEST IS NOW OPEN!

Each year CSIET (Council on Standards for International Educational Travel) hosts an Art Cover Design Contest where exchange students can enter their creation the reflects the goals and mission of international exchange. High school exchange students can submit artwork that represents the spirit of youth exchange and how it transforms their lives. The winner will receive a $500 cash prize and have their artwork featured in the 2022-2023 Advisory List and on the CSIET website.

Last year the CSIET Board of Directors selected the winner of the $500 prize to be Katerina Miskovska, an academic year 2020-2021 student from the Czech Republic. She describes her design—

“The picture is of hands with different flags on them from around the world. I chose flags from various countries of each continent. The flags symbolize the diversity of everyone in the world: we are all different, and that should be celebrated. The hands illustrate that even though we are all different, we are all people. Them being together shows unity-we are all a part of the same world. Many amazing, diverse people from around the world who I have met have influenced me and inspired me to make this piece” .

The Board of Directors Chairperson Kerwin Urhahn congratulates Katerina saying, “We applaud Katerina for her fantastic view of what foreign exchange does for kids and for the adults who get to interact with them because they teach us so much. Thank you Katarina!”

For more information, go to https://www.csiet.org/resources/art-cover-design-contest/. Deadline to submit it March 31, 2022.

New Year Traditions Around The World

By Patty Chung, Office Administrator

SHARE!’s students come from over 21 different countries and all have their own traditional way to celebrate the new year. Do you know that in Brazil, wearing white to ring in the new year welcomes peace and brings luck? In China, too, when they celebrate the lunar new year, wearing the color red attracts good luck and “lucky money” wrapped in red envelopes is given. Polka dot patterns on clothing represents blessings of prosperity in the Philippines and is worn at New Years.

Special foods are also part of the New Year celebrations. In Greece, pomegranates signify luck, prosperity and fertility and have a place in many new year traditions like smashing the fruit against the front door of the home. Grapes are eaten at midnight in Spain, Latin America and the Philippines to bring good luck. European countries eat lentils which represent prosperity. In Germany, marzipan pigs are given to friends and eating rice cake soup in Korea brings good fortune. Representing prosperity, dumplings abound in China during the new year. In Japan, eating buckwheat noodles symbolizes a wish for long life and herring fish roe is eaten to symbolize the hope of bearing many offspring.

Tell us what our student’s new year traditions are as we SHARE! ours. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Feliz ao nuevo (Spanish)! Gott Nytt r (Swedish)! Manigong Bagong Taon (Philippines)! Ein gluckliches neues Jahr (German)! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu (Japanese)! Buon anno (Italian)! Sehe Bokmanee Bateuseyo (Korean)! Bonne anne (French)! Xin nian yu kuai (Chinese)!

FUN HOLIDAY FACTOIDS

By Patty Chung, ERDT/SHARE! Office Administrator

While you deck your halls and jingle your bells, try trading trivia with your friends with these Christmas factoids—

  1. The Nutcracker ballet was composed by Peter Tchaikovsky based on Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s fantasy story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” It is performed all over the world at Christmas time and has become the most frequently performed ballet in the world.

  2. The movie Americans love the most around Christmas time is It’s a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart. “George Bailey” wishes he had never been born until an angel reminds him of how many lives he impacted positively and how different things would be if he was never there.

  3. We all have personal favorites but the 1942 song “White Christmas” sung by Bing Crosby is #1 on most lists. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 Holiday Inn movie, this has been the best-selling single of all time.

  4. Speaking of songs, the first Christmas song that was broadcast from space was “Jingle Bells” played by astronaut Cdr. Wally Schirra on his mini harmonica as fellow astronaut Thomas P. Stafford aboard Gemini 6 reported to Mission Control in Houston of a UFO sighting! “I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing red suit.” In the background, “Jingle Bells” could be heard and they got a good chuckle from Mission Control.

  5. The world’s tallest fresh-cut Christmas tree measuring 140-feet tall resides in Enid, Oklahoma through January 6, 2022. After high winds snapped the to 27 feet off on Dec. 5, it was restored with structural support that made it closer to 141 feet tall.

  6. While we were hunkered down during the 2020 COVID shutdown, total holiday retail sales in 2020 reached $789.4 billion, exceeded 2019 sales by 8.3 percent.

  7. Everything is big in Texas including gingerbread houses. The world’s largest gingerbread house was built in 2013 by the Texas A&M Traditions Club with donations and help from the community. It measured 21-feet tall, approximately covered the area of a tennis court, and contained 35,823,400 sugary calories.

  8. Imagine the goose-bump thrill of being one of a record-setting 68,357 voices singing “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night” in German). At Germany’s largest football stadium Borussia Dortmund, Christmas carols sung by children, adults and seniors rang out at the largest singing festival of its kind on Dec. 15, 2019.

  9. The Statue of Liberty is the largest Christmas gift ever given. The people of France in 1886 gave the United States the 151-foot, 1-inch-tall copper-clad statue designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and continues to be an icon of freedom and a symbol of welcome to immigrants.

  10. The gift that keeps on giving—the most popular day to propose happens to be Christmas Day!