American Exchange Project

Do you think America is more divided than ever? ❤️🩵 Do you feel we’re more different than we are alike? 🇺🇸 What would happen if you took a free week-long trip to a community vastly different from your own? And then brought folks from that far off town to your neighborhood? 👋 These are the questions we’re exploring on the new episode of Hope Is My Middle Name with the fabulous David McCullough III, co-founder and CEO of the American Exchange Project. Through week-long summer youth exchanges, AEP invites high school seniors 🎓 to experience life in communities far different from their own. These experiences foster connection, upend stereotypes, and restore a sense of ownership and pride of place as youth cross the threshold into independence. It all started with a road trip David took in college, where he realized that Americans were less polarized than we might think, and that adventuring together could be an antidote to division. 🌎 Fast forward just a few years after the launch of American Exchange Project and they’ve already sent over 1,000 students to 75 towns in 36 states. David envisions the American Exchange Project as a civic coming of age ritual, something that will eventually become as intrinsic to the high school experience as the senior prom. And in Jonathan’s Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, he references AEP as an antidote to anxiety. ❤️🩹 Join me as I sit down in Boston with David McCullough III for a powerful conversation on bringing people together across divides, establishing a civic coming of age ritual, and trading anxiety for adventure. ✨ Building Bridges Across America: American Exchange Project with David McCullough III on Hope Is My Middle Name 💐 now streaming on your favorite podcast platform.

"The water is nothing like I've ever experienced before," says AEPer Teigin on visiting Key West, Florida. "This is the furthest I've ever been from home. And it's quite literally on the opposite side of the country from where I come from." Keep reading in WLRN Public Media: https://lnkd.in/egHnjWtQ #nonprofit #education #florida #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool

It was an honor to be in such great company yesterday. Learn more about what we're doing at the American Exchange Project and how you can help at https://lnkd.in/dDtpUQX.

“Even if we had disagreements in opinion, we still had agreements in values. When you see where somebody comes from—you realize you’re talking to a friend, not an opponent.” Read more in Deseret News's look at how the American Exchange Project works: https://lnkd.in/eGijXqH4 #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool

“Evelyn Moctezuma of Scranton, Pa., got to see the ocean for the first time. Da’Kenzi Robinson of Paris, Texas, successfully rode the Metro. And [Maggie] Quine felt she could be anyone she wanted to be in a city where no one seemed to judge or even pay attention to her, a stark contrast to her hometown where everyone knows everyone else’s business.” A look at the boundary-breaking discoveries of an AEP exchange (via Los Angeles Times): https://lnkd.in/e-UQb-Yf #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool

On the beaches of Key West and the grasslands of Minnesota, on the trail of Route 66 in Oklahoma and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, week #7 AEPers stand together—closing out another unforgettable summer. #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool

"I think nature brings together a town and its identity a lot, and I can really feel that here." Which natural feature of West Jordan, Utah, is visiting AEPer Benjamin from Maine recalling? Find out in this interview with Benjamin, his host Brodie, and community leader Dr. DeLaina Tonks: https://lnkd.in/eQc-BQFE #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #utah #america #travel #outdoors #community

Dragon dancing with the EAST WIND FOUNDATION in Los Angeles, racing to the finish at Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway, stream swimming in Maine...It was a spectacular week #6 for AEP students from coast to coast. #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool

Through AEP, "different cultures emerge...so that we can learn more about our states all over," says Exchange Manager Renee Bailey in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Here's what AEP students from six different states learned after a week of soaking up Cajun culture (via KPLC-TV): https://lnkd.in/eizSpaTy #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #louisiana #america #travel #crossculture

The aim of an AEP trip is to help students experience life in a community different from their own—and the focus is good old-fashioned fun. Between hitting the rodeo in Wyoming, catching baseball games in New Mexico, stepping with the Kilgore College Rangerettes, and visiting the National Videogame Museum in Texas, week #5 AEP students had a lot of it! #nonprofit #education #exchangeprogram #summerprogram #america #travel #highschool