Ellen Hoggard
Appearances
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
Romania, I have to put a pitch in. I'm not going to lie. It was very emotional when I went there and signed the first agreement with the Romanian government for the first long-term exchange students. I got there just after the revolution and the hotel I stayed in still had bullet holes in the walls. My family wasn't too happy about me going, but nothing was going to stop me.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
That is such a great question. And hearkening back to when we started bringing these young people from, they were truly communist countries at the time. I think people were astounded at how open-minded the teenagers were. They expected them to come over here and... kind of spew the party line or tell them that, oh, it's great where they live.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
I mean, they have so much to be proud of in their beautiful countries, no matter what your politics are. Everyone has a beautiful culture and country to share. But I will say on both sides, both the students that came and the students that still come, they were surprised quite often
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
At how normal Americans are and, you know, we're just regular people and the streets are not paved with gold, at least not where our exchange students go. In fact, not pretty much anywhere I've gone. So a lot of stereotypes were washed out on both sides.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
And we did sign the first agreement. When I went at 16, let me be clear, it was a short-term three-week agreement. music exchange supported by the Reader's Digest. Fast forward to the early 90s, these exchanges were long-term, students coming for five months or 10 months, serious exchange. And by the way, not accompanied by a KGB agent, which my group was the whole time we were in Romania.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
And over and over and over again, I've seen people say things like, I never dreamt that you would be open to going to a baseball game or considering that here in America, we volunteer so much. One of the biggest impressions all of exchange programs make on young people is the spirit of volunteerism and the kids embrace it and take it home or replicate it in their home countries.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
They came on their own. They stayed with families.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
Yeah, the other thing I'll mention about exchange, just to plug it, is there's 64 high school exchange programs like High School in the USA. We're one of the newest, but we're populated by a team that has collectively over 75 years of experience running high school exchange programs. And we all came here because we wanted to work with people like you and GEC and the Integrity and Ethics Program.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
that Southwestern brings to every business they support. Plus, we are the only high school exchange program in the United States that offers our high school exchange students the beautiful LEAD program. And this knocks the socks off of every exchange student that comes.
The Action Catalyst
CLIP: Bullet Holes, KGB, and Fighting Stereotypes
And what we really want to do is build the leaders of tomorrow to go back to their countries and really do their best for their countries