Four ASMSA students learned this spring they will be studying abroad through two U.S. Department of State programs dedicated to introducing youth to international cultures and while preparing them to be global leaders.
Blaine Martin (’20) and Jared Block (’19) were each selected to participate in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) while Kenny Ventress (’21) and Nina Thomas (’21) are going to study in Germany through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX). While several ASMSA students have been selected to participate in the NSLI-Y program in the past few years, this marks the first year students have been chosen for CBYX[CA2] since 2011.
It is also the first year any current students have been selected to participate in a yearlong study-abroad program. CBYX allows students to spend a full academic year living with a German host family and attending a German school. Thomas and Ventress will leave in late August for their German stays. Thomas will be in Wiefeslstede where she will study at Kooperative Gesamtschule Rastede. Ventress will live in Jerichow and study at Biscmarck-Gymnasium in Genthin
Previous ASMSA participants in NSLI-Y have chosen to participate in the six-week summer program. That’s what Martin chose to do this summer. He left in late June for Indonesia and will return in early August. But Block, who graduated in May, is the first to be selected for a yearlong program through NSLI-Y. He will leave in late August to spend a year in Chisnau, Moldova, studying Russian.
Spending a full year in a study-abroad program offered some challenges to Thomas, Ventress and Block. For Thomas and Ventress, they still have completing both high school and the ASMSAS experience to consider. For Block, there was the consideration of whether do the year abroad or start his freshman year of college at Baylor University.
Once he was selected for the program, Block let admissions officials at Baylor know about his desire to study Russian in Moldova. Participating in the program would give him a jump on learning Russian to use in a future career in diplomacy or social work.
“Baylor was really helpful for my acceptance to carry over for the next year and helped figure out ways for me to keep my scholarships,” he said. “I really got the love of languages from Bryan Adams (a French instructor at ASMSA). He knows a little bit of Russian and knows it is a critical language. Organizations need more speakers. It is really complicated, so I decided to try to learn it in an immersive program.”
Block said he decided nine months living and learning in a language would be a better start than jumping in cold as a freshman in college. He plans to study Russian as a major when he returns, but the NSLI-Y program will provide him with the chance to develop conversational skills and maintain fluency that more rigid study may not.
“I’ll be living with a host family. That will give me the most first-hand experience. Dropping me into a family will help me better learn about their customs.”
Thomas and Ventress had to decide whether an additional year of high school was worth having the year of exposure to another language and culture.
“I really wanted to do something international before college,” Ventress said. “I’ve never wanted to major in a language but maybe in business or international affairs. I knew it would mean an extra year of high school and leaving my friends.
“I wanted to graduate from ASMSA for sure. As I learned more about the program, it became obvious I would need to graduate from a U.S. school for scholarships, but at the same time I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’ve always wanted to be an exchange student.”
Thomas said all of the advantages the program would offer her made the choice of coming back to ASMSA for the 2020-21 academic year an easier one.
“While this was a very huge decision to make, the choice was obvious,” Thomas said. “I told myself when I began the application that if I was accepted I was definitely going on this exchange. This experience completely outweighs its drawbacks.
“I have no problem with graduating a year later or anything like that. It also helps knowing that Kenny would be going through all of this alongside me: preparation, the exchange itself, and also returning to ASMSA to a completely new set of people.”
Thomas actually credited Ventress for finding out about the program. She said the duo had bonded over their interest in languages and he shared information about CBYX after learning about it.
She said her mother speaks German and went to college in Germany as an exchange student from her university in Moscow, Russia. “I thought to myself that nothing would be more amazing than to return home and carry a normal conversation with her in German,” she said.
What might be considered a couple of matters of coincidence, Thomas said the oldest child of her host family will be participating in CBYX as an exchange student to the United States. Her own family will also host an exchange student from Colombia who is Thomas’ age at the same time.
For Martin, while his trip will be much shorter than his classmates’, he anticipates his stay in Cinere, a suburb of Jakarta, Indonesia, will be no less educational. He had no previous experience with Indonesian.
“I have heard of Bali, but I knew Indonesia was more than a vacation destination,” he said. “I wanted to experience a culture and language rarely mentioned in the United States. I have no experience with Bahasa Indonesia, so I think it will be an amazing experience that tests my language learning limits.”
Each participant said their parents, family and friends were supportive of their choice to participate in their individual programs, though some more than others. Martin said his family realized how great an opportunity he was granted to go to Indonesia.
“My family is very supportive of my travel and language-learning endeavors, so they were all for it. They know this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will open my mind to unknown cultures,” Martin said.
Thomas said her parents were complete for the exchange from the beginning. “I’m not sure why I was surprised by their response when I first expressed my interest in the CBYX. I knew they would support me, but more than that, they were extremely enthusiastic about it. They told me to start my application right then and submit it as soon as possible,” she said.
Block said his mother had lived in Germany when she was younger. She could relate to how the first-hand experience and being in different scenarios could broaden his mind, he said.
Ventress and Thomas also noted that their year at ASMSA had helped prepare them and their families for them to be away each other for a school year, even if it was not quite as far as Germany.
“Going to ASMSA is already like going to college,” Ventress said. “I have lots of brothers and sisters, and this gives me a chance to be an example for them.”