Throughout the FLEX academic year, grantees offer special training workshops for selected students, many of whom will compete with other FLEX participants for the opportunity to attend special events held in cities throughout the United States.

Language Enhancement and Independence Skills Training Workshops

Each year, there are a number of outstanding FLEX applicants whose English language abilities do not meet selection criteria. These students are invited to participate in a pre-program Language Enhancement workshop that is conducted by individual placement organizations in host communities. The workshop assists students in meeting the demands of functioning in an English language classroom and provides 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 regions of their countries where English language instruction might be less rigorous.

Since diversity is a priority in all State Department-sponsored programming, the FLEX program maintains a component for students with disabilities. 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, selected students participating in the FLEX program are invited to meet with leaders in Washington, DC 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, for which they write an essay about their experiences so far in the United States.

Some of the highlights of FLEX students’ Washington experience have 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, where they heard a panel on the importance of a free press. In addition, students 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.

Support for FLEX Students with Disabilities

FLEX alumni in action; working with students with disabilities.

Since 1996, the FLEX program has included a special component for students with disabilities. The Disability Components Program includes FLEX students with a range of disabilities and prepares them for their exchange experience in the United States, provides them assistance and support throughout the academic year, and prepares them for their departure to their home countries. The goals of the Disability Components Program are to help each student adjust as a person with a disability for their year in the United States, develop leadership and empowerment skills throughout the year, develop an understanding of disability rights and issues in the United States, and at the end of the year, to focus on readjustment and transition as a person with a disability to his/her home country. The Disability Components Program is administered by Mobility International USA.