by Asher Lefkoff | 7 Dec 2022 | Culture, Education, Europe, Personal Reflections, School Year Abroad, Student Posts, Youth Voices
It’s the serenity and commotion that I love about Spain. I must seize the day because I will never again be 17 running around a Spanish city I love. Zaragoza (Photo by Asher Lefkoff) This article, by high school student Asher Lefkoff, was produced out of News...
by Aline Itege | 1 Dec 2022 | Education, Health and Wellness, Kepler, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Youth Voices
When the language of instruction in Rwanda shifted from French to English, I stumbled academically. My father taught me to ask for help when in a jam. The author with her father in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2008. “That was my first time in Kigali. My father had...
by Kamuskay Kamara | 5 Apr 2022 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Contest winners, Education, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Youth Voices
I have always wondered why my Mom gave me a merciless beating over a piece of meat. But that meal changed my life for the better. The author with his mother and elder sister Isata in 2009 This story won second prize in News Decoder’s 11th Storytelling Contest....
by Varlee S Fofana | 29 Mar 2022 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Education, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Youth Voices
We studied together ahead of exams. What I learned about friendship and adversity at study camp in West Africa will serve me for life. At study camp in 2019 in Kpelleh Town Community, Jacob Town, Painesville, Liberia. From left to right, Teddy Jallah, Varlee Fofana,...
by Nelson Graves | 1 Jun 2021 | Education, News Decoder alumni, News Decoder Updates, Personal Reflections, School Year Abroad
Elisabeth Wachtel learned a second language, made friends and lifted her chances of college admission by studying abroad for a year of high school. Why would a teenager pick up stakes and leave friends and family behind for a year to study in an unfamiliar, foreign...
by Ella Steinhilber | 8 Apr 2019 | Americas, Education, Europe, School Year Abroad, Student Posts, Youth Voices
I’ve spent the past school year studying overseas. It’s given me a new perspective on my own homeland and on the polarization that divides us. A protest against efforts to repeal the U.S. Affordable Care Act, New York, 24 July 24 2017 (EPA/JUSTIN LANE) I...
by Christine Fernando | 2 Jul 2018 | Americas, Asia, China, Education, Indiana University, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, United States, Youth Voices
Chinese students flaunting luxury cars and designer clothes fuel a stereotype that ignores the harsh reality for many compatriots on U.S. campuses. Chinese high school exchange students act out skits during their orientation near Ann Arbor, Michigan, 29 August 2017...
by News Decoder | 21 Jun 2018 | Americas, Education, Indiana University, Student Posts, United States, Youth Voices
By Emily Isaacman After the 2016 presidential election, Tom Lewis, interim director of the Intensive English Program at Indiana University, said his class of foreign students felt amused, not concerned. “I think they feel that their experience here has been very...
by Danielle Castonzo | 30 Apr 2018 | Education, Personal Reflections, Technology
Smartphones can be great learning tools, but they can also be addictive, interfere with learning and contribute to bullying. I know — I teach high school. Students send text messages, Manila, Philippines, 10 June 2008 (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) I walk into a...
by Adrian Balvuena | 15 Mar 2018 | Education, Personal Reflections, School Year Abroad, Student Posts, Youth Voices
My parents came to the U.S. from Mexico, and I grew up in the Bronx. They have sacrificed so much for me — a burden I need to learn to live with. Immigrants at a naturalization ceremony in New York, 22 March 2013 (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) I can’t recall a...