5 Questions with an LC | Bringing the Exchange Experience Full Circle

Meet Jala Washington, a CIEE BridgeUSA local coordinator based outside Austin, Texas. She’s also a reporter and weekend news anchor. 

1. CIEE: How did you get involved with CIEE and learn about this opportunity? 

Washington: I was a study abroad student myself: I completed an internship and lived in Spain for a few months. 

I also have a demanding job. But I wanted to get something else outside of my main TV news job, just to have some extra money coming in.  

I was researching remote positions – and the CIEE local coordinator (LC) job popped up. And at first, I was like, is this real? Like I could get involved and do everything that I experienced and was exposed to as an exchange student? To have the opportunity to be on the other side of the exchange experience, I thought it was really cool. 

And I am a yapper. I don't meet a stranger. I can literally talk to anybody.  

2. CIEE: What motivates you to support exchange students? 

Washington: What motivates me is just seeing the impact you can make. 

I encourage students to step outside of themselves to really challenge themselves. That's something that I had growing up, and being able to do that for exchange students has been rewarding for me.  

Sometimes, I will take my students on a drive and we'll just talk. I’m able to have those intimate moments with them and build that relationship where they feel comfortable enough reaching out to you, because I’m their source of support when they are over here away from their families.  

3. CIEE: And what about the support that you’ve provided to host families? 

Washington: Some host families are not super aware that they're going to have moments with their exchange students where they are going to have to provide that parental support.  

So, I've been able to encourage parents to take ownership of being a host parent. No, you're not their natural parent. No, you didn't give birth to them or raise them.  

But being able to encourage families to stick to their boundaries and their house rules while also communicating with their students has been some of the support that I've been able to provide.  

And even being a mediator in some cases has just made a big difference in situations that I think could have escalated that don't just by sort of having that middle person there.  

4. CIEE: What kind of changes did you see with the people you’ve helped? 

Washington: High schoolers are obviously in their very formative years. So, they are working on their communication skills. They're working on becoming more independent.   

I've had a few of my students who have come in a little sheltered. By the time they get to their halfway point in their exchange experience, I noticed that they're a little bit more independent. Being able to witness that growth is really rewarding. And even students who come over here and speak decent English, just seeing how much their English improves is also incredible.   

5. CIEE: And what about being in Texas? What makes it a great place for an exchange student?   

Washington: Texas is so dang big. Honestly, if I was an exchange student coming to America, I would want to come to Texas because Texas almost feels like its own country within itself.   

We have our big cities, but we also have our smaller towns where you can experience the rodeo, you can experience farm living, you can experience more of that rural lifestyle.   

So, I think you get a little bit of everything, and you are just really exposed to more than just the city where you're living.   

Interested in becoming a local coordinator? Contact CIEE to learn more about becoming a local coordinator.