Foreign Exchange Programs

Grace Brown

1/10/23

Greenheart is a non-profit organization that helps people achieve their goals of traveling overseas to different countries. Greenheart helps a lot of foreigners travel to America and also a lot of people from America travel to Europe. You can do an exchange program that is as short as a week but that isn’t very common. You can do an exchange that is up to a year where you are placed with a host family. Host families are there to help you integrate into the culture and language.

There are 2 branches to Greenheart; there is the Greenheart exchange and then there is the Greenheart travel. The difference between the two programs is that the exchange program mainly focuses on Europeans who want to come to America to experience what America is like, and greenheart travel program is the American version of that. It is where the Americans go to Europe to live.

Greenheart partners with a lot of organizations and different groups to make an exchange possible for many different people including ones who have already completed their bachelor's or master's degrees with the professional exchange opportunity. During that, these people who have their degree can be immersed in the culture of the country that they have chosen. 

In Greenheart you can choose the country that you want to go to so that you can learn the language, culture, and appreciation for the overall atmosphere. There are a lot of places where you can do your exchange. Some of the places include Austria, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Japan. Each of these places has a different culture, economy, and overall order that their country does things in. 

Although exchanges are fun they are expensive so most of the programs that you can go through offer scholarships of various kinds. The scholarship can differ based on the length of your trip. The government also gives out a lot of scholarships for teens to attend exchange trips. The scholarships can also be through other personal places like a church that you might be attending or a business that you might get to support you. 

The AYA is a different organization that is just like Greenheart Exchange in the way that it focuses on giving people from Europe or other places a good experience in America. Another organization, AIFS, is kind of like Greenheart Travel because it helps the Americans find a place to do an exchange. However, there is one thing that separates AYA/AIFS from the other programs and that is that it is funded by the government. These programs give kids the opportunity to be able to explore themselves and also other countries by offering these scholarships to kids. Like the scholarships in Greenheart, the monetary value depends on where you are going and how long you are staying in the country. AIFS gives out a lot more scholarships than a lot of the other programs including Greenheart.

You can also host a kid from other countries but have to have specific qualifications, which differ per program, for hosting a kid. The programs normally do a background check and a couple of other safety procedures when considering a host family. Host parents say that hosting kids is a very fun and rewarding experience.

Participating in an exchange program can be intimidating at first but it is ultimately very rewarding.