Media Moments

In the News

Baker City Herald

“Porscha Myers never had a cheese bagel until she visited Eastern Oregon—and she lives in upstate New York. Felix Robinson grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and never saw a rodeo until he attended the Elgin Stampede. Lena Eldredge, from Chesapeake, Virginia, experienced a speed boat for the first time on Wallowa Lake.”

The Chestertown Spy

“It’s hopeful and inspiring that so many members of our community wanted to put themselves out there to make this happen for young people from all across the United States.” —Dr. Sara Clarke-De Raza, volunteer, Chestertown, Maryland

2822 NEWS

“Other than teaching, this is the most inspirational thing I’ve ever done.” —Jerry Skotletski, Exchange Manager, Scranton, Pennsylvania

THE CHRONICLE

“I’ve had a lot of firsts. My first s’more, my first time riding on a horse, my first time being on a plane, my first time traveling, my first time being to Oregon, rafting, and my first time being away from my sister for so long.” —Dwanny M. (Bronx, New York → Springfield, Oregon)

Faribault County Register

“This program genuinely helps you make some of the best friends you’ll ever have. I made some really close friends [who live] down in Florida, and I’m already planning to head back down and visit them again.” —Sophie H. (Blue Earth, Minnesota → Sussex, New Jersey)

NICE NEWS

“Growing up in rural Kansas can be a vastly different experience than growing up in New York City, and not just in terms of geography. In a large nation like the U.S., the population differs widely in income levels, values, ideas, ethnicities, religions, languages, you name it. What’s perhaps more interesting than what we don’t have in common, though, is what we do.”

WSLS 10

“To think [that American Exchange Project is] going to add more places…you could genuinely end up anywhere in America. It’s going to really show people things that they’ve never even thought about.” —Logan H. (Orford, New Hampshire → Pulaski, Virginia)

The Christian Science Monitor

“Usually, the visitors and locals are perplexed by each other when they first meet, says Kilgore [Texas] Mayor Ronnie Spradlin. But it doesn’t take long for them to bond over activities such as touring the oil history museum…or riding horses.”

“American Exchange Project is a way of getting students off their screens and engaging at a human level, especially with others unlike themselves.”

—Dame Louise Richardson (President, Andrew Carnegie Foundation)