By: Bonnie Washick and Kathryn Conley<\/p>\n
Exchange Day<\/a> has come and gone, but the impact of cultural exchange continues to reverberate. In Chicago, Greenheart collaborated with Hosteling International USA<\/a> and WorldChicago<\/a> on an event featuring a world-traveled panel discussion, a clothing exchange and donation, live Brazilian Bossa Nova music, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks courtesy of Kinslahger<\/a>. Big thanks to everyone who attended our sold-out event and, as one panelist said, joined us to “celebrate breaking down barriers.”<\/p>\n Those who live far away or were unable to join us this year can read on for some key takeaways from Exchange Day.<\/p>\n Panelist Natalie Felton of Peace Corps<\/a> offered a great tip for anyone preparing to travel: Do your research! For Natalie, tapping into her personal network helped as she was able to connect with people who had been to the same place she was heading as a Peace Corps volunteer.<\/p>\n Even so, there will always be something for which you\u2019re not entirely prepared. Panelist Jennifer Gove drove this point home. \u201cNo matter how much I\u2019ve traveled… there\u2019s always a little bit of fear to go and meet new people. I think that\u2019s so human and normal. Getting out of my comfort zone is such a huge part of what I need to do or what everybody needs to do in life.<\/strong> So today [Exchange Day], it\u2019s just about getting out there and meeting people, learning other people\u2019s stories, sharing my own stories, and just walking away a better person for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennifer is Director of Culture and Talent at Swiss\u00f4tel Chicago<\/a>, which partners with Greenheart to host several exchange visitors through the U.S. State Department’s Summer Work Travel<\/a> program.<\/p>\n Andre, a Romanian Summer Work Travel<\/a> (SWT) exchange visitor who works as a beach attendant with Boucher Brothers <\/span><\/span>spoke of the impact the SWT program is already having. “My English got better each day speaking with the guests.” He added, “What I really learned and why I enjoy [about the SWT program] is that the people are more open here in America\u2026 they just walk [up] to you and speak with you and say, \u2018how are you?\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Encountering different cultural norms is something that struck panelist Brian Peckrill, too. Reflecting on his first experience with cultural exchange he said, \u201cIt made me see the world from a different angle and it fundamentally changed the path of my career.\u201d <\/strong>Today, Brian helps bring people from around the world to Chicago for short-term professional exchanges through the State Department\u2019s International Visitor Leadership Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Panelist Cara Miller Brytan, a Fulbright<\/a> alumna, similarly saw her career shaped by cultural exchange. She now supports DePaul University<\/a> students who study abroad.<\/p>\n By: Bonnie Washick and Kathryn Conley Exchange Day has come and gone, but the impact of cultural exchange continues to reverberate. In Chicago, Greenheart collaborated with Hosteling <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21670,"featured_media":18090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[103,136,53],"class_list":["post-18089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenheart-international","tag-chicago","tag-advocacy","tag-cultural-exchange"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/21670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/18090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenheart.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tips for Getting the Most from Cultural Exchange and Exchange Day<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Why Seek Out Cultural Exchange?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What does Exchange Day mean to you and how did you celebrate? Let us know in the comments!<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"