First Place Winner Yuliya Zhuhel
All our lives we are living with the hope of something happening. During a winter in the United States I was living with hope that it will finally start snowing, but in Middletown, Delaware we do not get a lot of snow, we hardly get good snow. This picture was taken in Philadelphia when we went to see the Hershey Museum to get some information for the History Day Project. Suddenly, it started to snow very, very hard. In this picture I am hugging my little host sister. It was one of the best snow-days I have ever had!

First Place Winner Maren Morschhaeuser

First Place Winner Javohir Sodiqov:
This picture was taken when it was my first Varsity game. I was really excited for many reasons: After a lot of hard practice I was eager to play. Sometimes we practiced in rain, and cold wind, so I was ready to use what I learned in practice. At this time I felt like I was part of my team, my school, because my teachers and classmates were excited to see my play. In my first JV game I made a touchdown, it was awesome, nobody expected it. That happy event made me stay in a great mood the whole week. It was an unforgettable event in my exchange year! I think I will never forget it. Even now I'm writing about it and I'm smiling, I'm feeling really happy.

Second Place Winner Zita Barlai:
My exchange year is about making friends with people from all around the world, and mostly from here, America. This program brings you friends who you might not even talk to, if you passed them by. They all are interesting, everyone is a different package, different experiences, perspectives, even those who are only few miles away from each other. I can happily say when I go back, I'll have all of them in my heart, forever. 

Third Place Winner Lea Suranji:
This is me with my host family at a hockey game, where the players were not only from the U.S. but Canada as well, and they even had a player from the Czech Republic. I also went to a WSU basketball game where they had a Serbian player on their team! It does not matter how small or big a town or a city is where we live, there are always going to be racial, national, religious, ethnic, and cultural differences. This is what makes the United States. The diversity and the fact that you cannot tell just by looking at somebody if they were Catholic, Mormon or a Scientologist, if they have German, Italian or Norwegian - as my host family - blood in them. Each and every person is proud of their heritage here, and all of us should be. We are all unique and different individuals, but these backgrounds unite us, and present us to the world. All of us should make sure that the world sees the best parts of us and our group that we belong to. What it all comes down to is that we are all different in one way or another, but in unison we are all the same, we are all humans, and that is the most important!

Third Place Winner Nigar Usubova:
In this picture you see me riding canoe with my host grandfather, Bill. We were picking up trash from Chattanooga Creek. I was working on my community service project. At first when my host dad suggested me to do it I said: "No Tom! Are you kidding? Picking up trash! My clothes would get dirty!"   But an hour later I assured him that I would do it. You probably want to know why I said YES! I thought that maybe I should experience it. That's what an exchange is for me! I am here to experience American life on my own. I am here to learn about American culture as much as possible and share my own culture, to learn to accept and appreciate cultural diversity. That's why I said YES to all these opportunities when I was asked if I wanted to go to see sunrise at 6:45 am, learn how to make pottery and how to ski, take part in Cultural Festivals, attend a Teen Conference in the Mountains with my youth group at church, pick up trash in Creek, take part in Native American ceremony, go to a ghost investigation, and just enjoy all the cultural differences.