“There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.”

Kate Douglas Wiggin

Even though I have not participated in the Work and Travel program yet, youth exchange programs are an extremely important part of my life. That is why I want to share with you the story of my experience with such kinds of programs. My story is a sequence of failures, victories and valuable lessons that youth exchange programs give me that make me love them so much. This is a story about my vision of youth exchange programs and how they shape my personality, so I gladly welcome you to read it.

Since childhood, I have been obsessed with the idea of exploring the diversity of our world. However, there is a question of what does this exploration really mean? Is it enough to arrive in the country’s capital and see the main tourist sights? For me, the answer is definitely no. I believe that a true understanding of the visited country is impossible without cultural exchange, which can be gained with the help of interaction with locals. That is why for me youth exchange programs are the best way to explore new cultures. The format of youth exchanges gives me emotions different from any other type of journey. Moreover, youth exchanges often include educational parts or provide an opportunity to improve professional skills, making them not only enjoyable but extremely useful experiences. Thus, being raised in a small city without the financial opportunity to travel a lot, I always struggled to see the world, and I chose youth trips as my tool for achieving it. As a result, today, I have visited 11 countries and created connections with more than a hundred people in diverse world corners.

My first interest in international exchanges occurred in 2017 when I decided to apply to the FLEX program. I tried twice, but I only got the status of alternative finalist and finished one step away from my dreamy exchange school year. Analyzing the situation from today’s perspective, I realize that I was denied because my applications for both attempts were almost identical. Thus, the first lesson that exchange programs taught me is to keep progressing all the time. After five years, in 2022, I returned to the idea of participating in the US exchange program, which is why I chose the Work and Travel opportunity. For me, Work and Travel is an amazing opportunity to earn not only money but things that are much more valuable. With W&T, I am eager to dive into unknown American culture and learn how people live on the other side of the world. Driven by such motivation, I signed the job offer and prepared for my summer in the US, but my plans were ruined by the war. I am from Melitopol, which is now an occupied city and being there at that period of time did not allow me to make confident decisions, and that is how my plans to see the US was ruined for the second time.

In such a way, the second lesson that exchange programs taught me is never to give up. Thus, aside from chasing my American dream, I actively investigated other parts of the world with the help of youth exchange programs. After my failure on FLEX, I started to search for further opportunities and applied for several exchange programs at international universities. Again, I did not manage to pass the last selection stages and got refusals. Still, I did not give up on searching for an active social life and decided to start with the program inside my country. Thus I took a gap year and entered the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, which is a program of informal education gathering young leaders which allows us to share experiences and implement social projects. With the Academy, I went on my first cultural exchange to Israel. During this trip, we lived in Machines, which can be described as social leadership preparatory programs for high school graduates. We stayed with Israeli students who shared their national values with us as well as we introduced them to the beauty of our Ukrainian culture. This experience was amazing because we lived just in the middle of the desert and discovered how with the help of human effort, maximum progress could arise out of minimal conditions. During this exchange, I realized the value of communication with the natives of the visited country. Youth exchanges in such a way allow us to deeply feel the spirit of the nation and to learn the insights that are not available during regular tourism.

In 2022 I started my large exchange journey with Erasmus+ projects. I visited six youth exchanges where I met people from 15 countries. I remember seeing the antique elegance of Rome and the breathtaking majesty of the Atlantic ocean in Portugal. At the same time, I will never forget the most delicious chicken I ever tried made by my friends from Morocco or trying pizza with pineapple with my Italian friends (just imagine how crazy it is!!!). Even more crazy is that I even met the Italian mafia once. The experience that can be obtained during the youth exchange program may be really unexpected but undoubtedly memorable. Erasmus+ youth exchanges introduced me to the magic of how people with different backgrounds can find common qualities and even become close friends. This is truly mind-blowing because today’s world needs global unity and youth exchanges significantly contribute to achieving such international understanding and support.

Concluding my manifest, I would like to answer the question of how I see the youth exchange programs in 50 years. The crucial point here is that I don’t want to guess the future of youth exchange programs, but instead, I want to shape it. That is the main reason I want to continue my path and participate in Work and Travel 2023. I dream of building my career in the sphere of youth work, and moreover, I am working on turning my dreams into goals. I want to organize exchange projects in order to let Ukrainian youth see the diversity of our world and change their lives just as I changed mine. At the same time, hopefully, not in 50 years but much earlier, I will bring youth change programs to Ukraine in order to represent our culture to foreign students. I want to develop inclusive and accessible youth exchange programs and acknowledge more and more young people about the available opportunities. I fully realize that in order to share knowledge, it is essential firstly to gain it. The Work and Travel program can give me resources that I can implement during my further realization as a youth worker. Thus, the program will contribute to my personal development, and moreover, I also believe that I will manage to share my experience and make it beneficial to a wider range of young students.

At this point, my blog comes to an end, but my youth exchange story is definitely to be continued