Journal and Courier
November 7

Butterfly ballots, hanging chads and new touch screen computers. A group of nine students and two teachers from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, received a crash course in recent election history on the last day of their three-week stay in Lafayette and at Jefferson High School.

Besides taking a trip to a local polling place, the group saw a punch card voting machine from 2000's election fiasco in Palm Beach County, Fla. Jeff Russian teacher Todd Golding explained the changes that the voting problems have sparked.

Ludmila Tsoi, an English teacher with the group, said she was impressed by the way technology made U.S. elections different from those in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in central Asia. As a teacher, Tsoi is called upon to help count ballots, which are completed by making an X next to the candidate you chose.

"We count them all by hand," she said. "It takes so much time, sometimes from 5 in the morning until 3 the next morning."

The Uzbek exchange program, and a similar one at McCutcheon High School involving students from Pskov, Russia, is coordinated through the American Councils for International Education. Each year, 32 American high schools participate in the exchange program with high schools from countries that are former Soviet republics.

Schools participate for three years, and each year they send nine new students to the same Asian high school. Jeff is in its second year; McCutcheon is new to the program this year.

During the summer, Golding accompanied a group of Jeff students to Uzbekistan. He said it was a great experience for both him and the students involved.

"We got to experience the great Uzbek hospitality," Golding said. "I don't think you can find it better anywhere in the world."

One of the focuses of the program is to teach kids the benefits of community service and living as part of one world community. To that end, students at Jeff "adopted" the group's School No. 217 in Tashkent and raised money to help make improvements there.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of the former republics have had to start their countries anew.

In Uzbekistan, there is little money to fund schools beyond paying teachers. No. 217 gets by on a budget of about $30 a year. Golding said the building was in such disrepair that it would rain and snow in the auditorium, so Jeff students raised money to send to the school to help build a roof.

"It is wonderful," Tsoi said.

McCutcheon English teacher Sarah Powley said the group of nine Russian teen-agers and two teachers had been embraced by the school community.

"It's just been absolute fun," Powley said. "These Russian students are absolute charmers. They fit into these families like they have been there forever."

Junior Ashley Robbins agreed, saying the Russian student staying with her family, Alina Omel'chenko, has become more like a sister than a house guest during the past three weeks.

"It's been such an experience; she's so much like a sister to me now," Robbins said. "I'm still as excited as I was the first day when I found out I was going to get to go and get to host."

The students from Uzbekistan also praised their host families, saying they had been taken in like members of the family.

"The families are so kind for us," Bugakov Danil said. "They do all they can to help us understand the culture."

Both groups explored Lafayette and the surrounding areas and took field trips to Indianapolis and Chicago, but it was the little things that they enjoyed the most. The Uzbek students went trick-or-treating for the first time, and the Russians dressed up to help with a Halloween party at Hanna Community Center. They attended dances and visited local restaurants.

"It's very different," said Uzbek student Anna Kim. "Everything is very beautiful here."

Students involved in the exchange are put through a rigorous application procedure. School performance, recommendations, a lengthy application and an intensive interview go along with school input into the decision. Students from the former Soviet Union must also demonstrate fluency in English.

Russian student OIga Mikhailovskaya said that learning English was one of the main reasons she wanted to participate in the program.

"I wanted to work on my English," Mikhailovskaya said. "I wanted to learn about another nation, another country. This is my first time abroad and I want to learn as much as I can."

Omel'chenko agreed.

"I like to meet interesting people and be able to practice my language," she said. "It's a completely different country, a very different culture."

While the exchange program allows students to learn about the differences in cultures between the United States and other countries, Powley said the biggest benefit may be the similarities students can see.

"It's been a very broadening experience for our students and the Russians as well. When we go there (Pskov) our perceptions will change even more," Powley said. "The whole goal is cultural understanding. If you begin to understand why people think the way they do, you can bridge any kind of gap."

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