Opportunity To Host a High School Exchange Student From Thailand/ President John Kennedy Explains Benefits to US and the World

You Tube Video of President John F. Kennedy addressing foreign exchange students from AFS on July 18, 1963

I received the following message from Jim Luce of Orphans International that he wished to share with the Roosevelt Island community.

Also, take a look at the great JFK speech above describing how hosting a foreign student is not just a great experience for the student and host family but contributes "to some hope for peace". At the end of the speech, Kennedy invites the students to come back and visit him when he is old and gray. A shame that never happened.

Below is message from Jim Luce.

Global Commitment to Small Town Values in the Shadow of the 59^th Street Bridge
Thai Exchange Student Available to Island Family

By Jim Luce, Founder, Orphans International Worldwide (jim@oiww.org)

I have worked hard here on Roosevelt Island over the years, first with the Cub Scouts, the local PTA, Toastmasters, and of course Orphans International.

But I have ever experienced more joy than in learning Roosevelt Island has a new and unique opportunity: one of our families may immediately host an AFS student from Thailand for six weeks – possibly even longer!

AFS, known once as the American Field Service, is the preeminent high school exchange program in the world, ahead of youth for Understanding and the Rotary Exchange. It is also the world’s oldest and largest high school exchange program. See: http://www.usa.afs.org/usa_en/home.

The student’s name is Poom and, at 17, he enjoys drawing cartoons and loves nature. As for sports he enjoys swimming, basketball, and hiking with family. In his free time he reads books on economics. He is a friendly, caring, open-minded teen and is a good student. He wants to be an economist to help develop his province, the newest in Thailand. Would our island be a good fit for him or what?

We all know how special Roosevelt Island is. AFS is also very special to me for many reason. To begin with, my grandfather’s eyesight was so bad he could not serve in WWI. So instead, he volunteered with the American Field Service Ambulance Corps on the battlefields of France.

After the war, the drivers vowed to make peace through understanding, and an exchange program between French and German teens was launched. Today, AFS is in 40 countries. See the excellent YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q8-1Z6mOyg.

AFS also speaks to me because my family hosted a girl from Japan and I ended up a Japanese Studies major in college (Wooster & Waseda).

Before that, I had been an AFS student myself, finishing the 12^th grade in the States, then completing my 13^th grade in a “gymnasium” there before going to college.

The motto of AFS, taken from Sanskrit, is “Walk together, talk together, All ye people of the earth, Then and only then Shall ye have Peace.” The lesson of AFS is tolerance.

I would not be who I am today, and Orphans International would not exist, if it weren’t for my life-impacting experiences with AFS. Let AFS impact your life.

Thailand, by the way, is perhaps the most tolerant country in all of Asia and the Thais I have known are incredibly wonderful people. Poom seems to represent them well. To sponsor Poom, e-mail my friend Patti Davis at AFS (pdavis@afs.org).

Your family will be a better family for having hosted Poom. And Roosevelt Island will further strengthen its global commitment to small town values in the shadow of the 59^th Street Bridge.

As an aside, I don't necessarily agree that "small town values" are any better than big city values.