Exchange students from around the world and their enjoyed a day of culture Sunday, Feb. 9 at Greenheart Area Coordinator Melanie Foge’s home in Murfreesboro.

Foge opened her home to 12 students from Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Taiwan, and Poland attended including two students who are part of the Future Leaders Exchange scholarship program through our U.S. Department of State. Blackman, Oakland, Siegel and Rockvale high schools were represented at the meeting, among other area schools.

Host families had fun meeting and mingling and sharing funny stories about their students. The students also brought food from their native country to share.

The students have collectively completed almost 200 hours of volunteering and service in their communities.

With the primary purpose of enabling cultural exchange between the U.S. and other nations, the J-1 exchange visitor visa was created to build mutual understanding between citizens of the United States and people of other countries.

For more information about the exchange program and how to share these experiences with students for the 20-21 school year, visit hostwithgreenheart.org or contact GreenheartMelanie@gmail.com.