Speech of Appreciation from YES Student

Speech by Imane, Morocco
CIEE USA High School exchange student studying in Rhode Island

“I am having the worst time of my life in the United States.” [Pregnant Pause]

“That’s what you will say next year”, said Fatin, one of my friends in high school in Morocco. She couldn’t have been more wrong!

What I am going to talk to you about tonight is my experience with its serious and funny moments and how it shows that cultural exchange has a long term impact on World Peace.

October 27th 2008, A 16 year old Moroccan exchange student named Imane, that’s me, was lucky enough to meet the Ambassador of Morocco at Brown University and talk to him. This experience was the first of a long list of very interesting experiences that will change my life forever.

On Election Day I was asked to volunteer for the promotion of a bond referendum to build a new middle school and update my town’s high school’s science facilities. After volunteering 13 hours that day I learned the importance of team work, and that determination and hard work help you achieve your goals in life. This experience encouraged me to challenge myself and set some goals to my year in the United States.

So I decided early on this year to try to get the Presidential Community Service Award by committing to volunteer for 100 hours during my stay here and I am getting closer to it everyday.

Achieving this goal will give me more than just a souvenir to take home and hang in a wall. Through all the diverse community service activities I have been involved in, I have seen so many different faces of the United States. From people who live from paycheck to paycheck and fill the lines of soup kitchens, to old people in nursing homes who want nothing but a little bit of attention and care; I was lucky enough to see the true diversity of the world’s biggest melting pot. The determination and hard work of volunteers that I worked with affected me more than I would ever be able to describe and allowed me to witness the true spirit of volunteering, sacrificing time and money, and working for the good of people who are total strangers to us.

When I was asked to do presentations about my country by some teachers at my high school, I had no idea how much I would learn from it. Every time I presented about my country in French, or in English, I was astonished by the interest the students and teachers showed to what I had to say. Their questions pushed me to do further research about my country and know more about who I am. The presentations have shown me that we are much more the same than different.

Like every thing in life, my experience had its ups but also its downs. The hard times are the ones that helped me grow up and move away from my comfort zone to gain maturity and independence.

While I was fasting for Ramadan this year I experienced an important loss of weight. It was mainly due to the fact that I was not entirely used to the food here and that I was still used to having my parents, especially my mom looking after me in this month and making sure that I was in good health. Even though my host parents took the best care I could possibly ask for, they treated me much more like a mature person who was in position to take care of herself.

I got all the support and help I needed from my local coordinator and CIEE, and as you can see I gained most of that weight back thanks to my host mom’s delicious chocolate chip cookies. What I experienced that month taught me to rely on myself than I was before and become more independent.

If you have ever talk to my host mom, Joan, I am sure that she will be sure to mention my experience on a recent trip to Florida. We decided to go biking to one of the beaches along with two other friends. The thing is, I haven’t biked for almost ten years and when I mentioned that to my host mom she was confident that I should be fine. “Nobody forgets how to ride a bike and there is nothing as easy as it” she said. Well, the sad reality we experienced that morning showed us that the expression “it is as easy as riding a bike” has the complete opposite meaning in my case. Long story short, I fell over a hundred times that day and knocked a couple of people over to the point that I was nicknamed “ The World Champion of people bowling” and my host family’s favorite joke is “let see if anybody can take over that title and make a bigger skin donation to the Anna Maria Island Bridge”.

In a much less dramatic note, I was invited to speak about Islam at the Unitarian Church of my town to 7th and 8th graders. The hour I spent there showed me once more that coming to the United States was the best decision I have ever made. I learned throughout this experience about different religions which is something I couldn’t have done as easily in my country with 98% of the community Muslim. I went several times to different churches and learned about different practices and beliefs. It showed me that there is not one way of addressing God and that the humane faith has different ways of believing and worshiping a Supreme Being. This year taught me to be more tolerant.

Every time I think about mankind’s nature and actions I am shocked by people who can express an unimaginable hatred towards each other because they are different, and this makes me worried about the direction our world is taking. Luckily, those thoughts are immediately followed by others that prove to me that human beings are also capable of unbelievable love and kindness. Every time I think about my host family, my local coordinator, friends, teachers, or volunteers I work with;I cannot help but getting emotional when I think about all they have done for me. My host family gave me a place in their hearts and minds. My local coordinator was always there for me whenever I needed her, always making sure that everything was ok and that I was adjusting and enjoying my stay here. My teachers and friends have volunteered to help me and support me in my academics and took my situation in consideration whenever I did not understand something that was common knowledge to the other students. The volunteers I worked with tried to make my experience enjoyable and taught me all what I needed to know to help them. They thanked me so much at the times where I was the one who was learning from them and glad to be able to make a difference.

Every thing I have seen, heard and experienced this year has showed me that human beings are naturally inclined to love each other and that before being Jewish, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists or Atheists; before being Americans, Australians, Europeans Africans, or Asians; we are Humans. The only thing that could generate hatred and push people to become terrorists in the largest meaning of the word is ignorance. When people don’t understand the differences between each other’s cultures they tend to close off themselves pushed by the fear of the unknown. Exchange students will change some of the assumptions and preconceived ideas in their societies, easier than if it is imposed by other countries, because people are more likely to accept the change from within their society rather than from the outside. That is why I strongly believe that an exchange experience is one of the most powerful ways to promote understanding and help end those countries with centuries-long conflicts that take our focus away from the real problems, like fighting hunger and illiteracy and working for the common good of humanity as a whole.
Because of the nature of an exchange experience and the interactions it creates, it can reach grounds that no political speech can reach.

I can guess what you are thinking right now: “Oh my God, why listen to this girl, she is a disaster waiting to happen; she can’t even ride a bike!”

Well, the fact that I may not be able to ride a bike and my story, as a whole, are not the most important things I want you to keep in mind tonight. There are hundreds of other stories out there more exciting and successful than mine. What I really want to do tonight is to draw your attention to the people that we don’t talk a lot about but who make all of this possible: yourselves.

My experience and hundreds of other experiences wouldn’t have been possible if there was not a strong will from the government of this country, especially the U.S. Department of State, aware of the importance of these programs, to commit important financial and human resources to make it a success. My experience wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have organizations like CIEE to promote the programs and support the families and students throughout this experience. I personally wouldn’t be here tonight if my local coordinator, Genevieve Green, didn’t make every effort possible to find me a home, and not any home, I think she found the best match possible for me.

There are three elements that make an exchange experience successful: the student, the host family, and the local coordinator. The local coordinators have one of the most important roles in this process.

Each and everyone of you has a crucial role in making those life-changing experiences a success, and therefore working for the ultimate goal of making this a more tolerant world and a better place to live in. At various levels, your efforts made this year possible for me. From planning the overall strategies and attending never-ending conferences to supporting students and families and solving their problems, to lobbying in different departments of education and schools to enroll students and to training local coordinators who find families, by driving that extra-mile and making that extra-phone call. All of you have sacrificed countless family and leisure time to find us host families, to solve our problems, and to make this year memorable. So next time I see Fatin, I am sure that she will be please to know how much I enjoyed my year here.

I just want to say one more thing to everybody here tonight, to the U.S. Department of State representatives and to everybody from CIEE: For all that you have done for me and on the behalf of all exchange students you have placed in the past and will continue to place in the future: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.