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CITIZEN EXCHANGES –
YOUTH PROGRAMS DIVISION
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Leyla
Azerbaijan
Upper Arlington, OH
Upper Arlington High School

Last August a year in the USA seemed to be a long enough time to reach the five goals, written at the beginning of our FLEX student's book. However, I've already been here for more than two months and I still feel too far from the finish line.

I've already participated in several civic activities: I volunteered for the Sierra Club, joined a Girl Scout troop and started working with my host community's 6th graders. I have really enjoyed all of these and have learned a lot; however, volunteering at the 6th grade camp was the most interesting and unforgettable experience. More importantly, it gave me a base to start from.

I realized through this experience that I could be not only "a counselor, an example to look up to", but also a representative of another country. I led ten girls; ten American girls. I slept, ate and hiked with them. Besides these, I told them about my country. Some of them even managed to pronounce "Az- er- bai- jan"! I taught them our national dance "Yalli" and we performed it in front of the whole camp.
I left camp thinking, "How can I keep this excitement for a new culture going?" An after school club came to my mind, and that is how these experiences became the first steps of the "Cultural Awareness Club" I'm starting. It turns out that there are many exchange students, and 1st or 2nd generation internationals willing to help me with this club. We're going to have regular meetings with a different country representative each time. I think experiencing different cultures would be useful both for 6th graders and for me, because this process deepens such human qualities, as tolerance for and understanding of a multiethnic society.

Volunteerism is what will make this project happen. I would never be able to do this venture without the gratuitous work of people around me. "6th" grade camp would never happen, if the middle- school teachers and the high-school students weren't volunteering for it. I would not be there and would not be able to start the club, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to continue my work without the other people's support.

I have so many ideas to embody back at my home country! At the present my motherland is going through hard times: we're just starting our existence as an independent country, and there are many problems that aren't solved but can't wait. I want to make difference, I want Azerbaijan to be as democratic and law-respectful as the USA is. I want my country's environment to be taken care of. (Our polluted environment is the issue that I want to start with because it so affects our future.) I know what I want, but I don't see a way of doing it all by myself. First, I need to bring the idea of volunteerism to my country, make people understand, believe and follow it. It's hard to work for your ideas and beliefs without getting paid for your efforts when you don't have enough money to buy new clothes to your children! But we can't wait, doing nothing, if we want to get moving in the right direction.

I keep asking myself, how has the American democratic system encouraged volunteerism, and can't find the answer. That is, what I need to learn at the Civic Education Workshop. I think, besides helping me to understand the concepts of democracy and giving information about the USA government system, it could also help me to understand, how to develop the volunteerism in my home country. How do you organize individuals in a common goal when people see the need, but no one knows what to do? The Civic Education Workshop could help me to reach the finish line of the long "FLEX-student's goals" road and give me some tools and strategies to bring back home for Azerbaijan's future.

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