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World Learning Hosts Serbian Youth Leaders in Brattleboro

Serbian youths share culture in Brattleboro

Saturday, April 21, 2007
Special to the Brattleboro Reformer
This article originally appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer; reprinted with permission (c) 2007.

BRATTLEBORO (April 21, 2007) -- He usually pedals his bicycle everywhere. But on April 12, two days before his first trip to America, Roland Barna rode in his father's car to catch a bus at the station in Senta, Serbia.

His English teacher, Emese Bot, who told Roland about the Serbian Youth Leadership Program (SYLP), and three more students from this small Balkan town between Hungary and Romania, joined him for the nearly two-hour ride to Belgrade.

They spent two days in the country's capital, meeting 19 more Serbs, most of them 15 to 17 years old, along with three teachers and a Belgrade city council member. Groups of four came from five towns for pre-orientation, soon to depart on a formative journey half-way across the world -- Belgrade to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to America -- to begin a week in Brattleboro at the School for International Training (SIT).

"We were interested in the other culture ... What is American life like? ... Everything in the media, is it true?" Roland said during his last lunch at SIT Friday.

For the past seven days, Roland and the rest of the group were in Vermont for orientation and program introduction, getting ready for a 17 day immersion in American culture.

Today, Roland will join half of SYLP's participants departing for Cleveland. The other half will fly to Seattle. Each group will spend the next 17 days absorbing American culture via volunteer families from hosting high schools in each city.

"We are here to learn something new. And we can use what we learn to apply to our own communities," said Alejsa Hadzic, 17, a native of Prijepolje near the Montenegro border in southwest Serbia.

A grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, a branch of the U.S. Department of State, funds SYLP. World Learning, the parent of the School for International Training, manages the program by recruiting qualified Serbian youth in tandem with Civic Initiatives, a Serbian NGO.

The program aims to develop civic responsibility, commitment, awareness of current global issues and strong interpersonal leadership skills in young Serbs. Religious freedom, ethnic tolerance and grassroots activism are major themes.

"In Serbia, we have a saying: You are worth as many languages as you speak," Alecksander Todorovic said. Alecksander, 17, speaks German, Italian and English in addition to his native tongue, Serbian.

"There is a Hungarian saying too," Roland adds. "As many languages you speak is how many people you are."

In rooms 108 and 109 of the Rotch building at SIT, the Cleveland and Seattle groups meet for some final words of advice.

"It's very common for American teenagers to drive ... use good judgment when you're in a car with an American teenager," Christina Thomas, Youth Programs Coordinator for World Learning in Washington, D.C., says to the Seattle group.

"And now for the really important information ... your host family information," Thomas says.

Collectively, they sigh. Two girls discover they are sharing a host family and hug with a hushed gasp. Two boys chatter, forgetting to speak English in a moment of zeal.

"I would caution you to use English around your host families," Thomas warns before the group circles up to trade Seattle trivia. "Who is the mayor of Seattle?" "What is Seattle most famous for?"

In each city, Serbian students will attend high school with an American peer. They will also visit museums and universities, likely shop and sightsee, and in the end, present Serbian culture to their hosts.

"Our youth isn't active enough ... we don't stand up for ourselves. Government doesn't pay attention," Alecksander says nearing the end of his last lunch in Brattleboro. "Being more involved could fix that."

At home, Alecksander edits his school newspaper. His friend, Jelena Manevska, presides over Student Parliament. "They don't have places just for youth, just for us, and we don't have money," Jelena says. "A few days before I came here, the Mayor and city council agreed to fund something for us."

Alecksander and Jelena are from the city of Kikinda, about 30 miles east of Roland's school in Senta.

"In our high school, we have a pupil council," Roland says as the group rises from the table, eager to finish laundry and packing. "The man who is the leader of pupil council is a Serb. He hates Hungarians. There are not many people like that ... but he is one of them."