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World Day for Cultural Diversity Celebration
June 8, 2020
Inspired by the World Day for Cultural Diversity, on May 21, the Bulgarian alumni community organized a webinar entitled What Does Diversity Mean in Today’s world. Diversity is one of the biggest lessons YES and FLEX alumni shared about their experience during the cultural exchange, and the subject is more ...
Kristijan Naumcheski YES '17 - Exchange Experience Story
April 13, 2020
I was a part of the YES program in 2016/2017 and was placed in Northwestern Missouri. I had fulfilled my wish to move out of my home country to visit the “Western World”. The first stop was, obviously, the United States of America. I had the opportunity to live, for ...
American Councils' COVID-19 Response Update
March 20, 2020
March 17, 2020—American Councils’ leadership continues to closely monitor the rapidly-developing reports on the COVID-19 pandemic. American Councils’ primary concern during this emergency is the safety and well-being of our participants, partners, and staff worldwide. American Councils’ senior management and program teams have worked diligently to keep our participants, partners, parents, ...
High School Students from Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito Visited the Macedonian Parliament
March 12, 2020
Maia Villarica from Barrington, Rhode Island is a gap-year YES Abroad student at Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito in Skopje, North Macedonia. On March 6, 2020, Maia had the opportunity to attend a forum at the Macedonian Parliament. This activity modeled the real life Macedonian law making processes. In this event, ...
Opening Doors with Language
February 26, 2020
Karina Mobley, YES Abroad Bulgaria '19 Здравейте (hello) from Bulgaria! I’m in the midst of my second flu vacation which has given me time to reflect on the last six months in this country. The most obvious accomplishment to me is that I can now (almost) speak Bulgarian! I came ...
Hikaru Hayakawa read a poem at the 70th Anniversary of the Institute of the Macedonian Language
February 26, 2020
Hikaru Hayakawa is a gap-year YES Abroad student from Livingston, New Jersey hosted this year at Gimnazija Orce Nikolov in Skopje. Having never hosted a U.S. exchange student before, the school has an amazing experience with Hikaru. He immediately won the hearts of his teachers and classmates with his polite ...
Abbie In Wonderland
February 3, 2020
Abbie Hill, YES Abroad Bulgaria '19 I’ve been in Bulgaria for, wow, has it really been five months already? As a member of the Yes Abroad program. To be honest, after all this time, I’m still not entirely sure where in the world I belong. My decision to apply here ...
Connecting Cultures through Cuisine
January 27, 2020
kena Foley YES abroad Bulgaria '19 Ever since my arrival, Bulgarians have been eager to share everything they know about their favorite traditional foods. I realized immediately that people are very proud of their country’s cuisine and are excited to share it with me. I’m often asked if I’ve ...
One Day at a Time
October 15, 2019
By Emma H., YES Abroad 2019-2020, Bosnia and Herzegovina A couple of weeks ago marked one month since I landed in Sarajevo. And it has been a very busy month! From misunderstandings to getting sick to losing my bus pass (thankfully one of my amazing neighbors found it), it has definitely had ...
YES Student Honored as Homecoming King
By Igor Stojkov '20, currently on program in U.S. Hello everyone, my name is Igor Stojkov and I come from North Macedonia. I have just started my exchange year, but however, I experienced a thousands of different things and feelings. I was really nervous and excited about coming to ...