My name is Bekah Lejarde, and I teach English as a Second Language (ESL) in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m currently going into my eighth year as an educator, and I absolutely love teaching our country’s most recent newcomers. My students are brilliant, hungry to learn, and eager to try new experiences. This drew me to The American Exchange Project. I see the value in building friendships with people who are different from you and how it can transform your understanding of others, yourself, and your place in the world. My alignment in beliefs with AEP, paired with my love of my hometown, made choosing to be an Exchange Manager an easy call!
Summer 2024 was my first year leading an exchange. Going into it, I had pretty standard worries: Will the students get along? Will they have fun? Will they enjoy Cleveland? My fears were alleviated immediately. I have never seen a group of young people openly embrace their peers, communicate with so much empathy, build each other up, and find common ground. It was amazing to watch as Dwight, a visiting student from Riggins, Idaho, and Lamont, a student of mine in Cleveland, realize they both aspire to be the same type of welder!
Meet an Exchange Manager
Bekah Lejarde from Cleveland, Ohio
Before the exchange week, I thought I'd have to remind the students to put their phones down and be present with each other, but that never happened. If there was a moment of down time, they'd circle up and find an activity to focus on as a group. One of their common languages that week was volleyball, and in these moments I'd catch them hitting the ball back and forth, counting how many consecutive volleys they could get, trying to set a new record.
The students thrived most when they had the freedom to take the lead and be creative. My favorite memory of the week is going to Cleveland's West Side Market, with the students assigned to collaborate on preparing and shopping for a dinner. They came up with a menu quickly and had a blast running around the already hectic market, deciding what to buy that'd be within budget.
Then, we returned to the host family's home to cook, where the kitchen was buzzing. Ahyana from Mississippi and Janet from California prepared the fruit salad. The Cleveland kids had their stations: Lamont shucked corn; Latifa prepared the filling for the sambosas; Cere diced garlic; Ma'Ann prepped the shrimp. The students gathered around the dining room table as Latifa taught the group how to wrap Sudanese sambosas. There was so much joy around that table as the students practiced their new skill.
My take-aways from this evening and this entire week are the following: our biases only thrive in the abstract, kids need spaces to be kids, humans need creative outlets, we thrive in community, and you can never have too much ice cream, especially when it's Wildberry Crumble from Mitchell's Ice Cream in Cleveland, Ohio!