Cari Ann DeLamielleure | Special to The Michigan Catholic
Detroit — With the help of scholarships and AFS, a nonprofit intercultural organization, Andrew Larkin, a graduate of Bishop Foley Catholic High School and Julie Harning, a graduate of Regina High School, continued their education abroad, expanding their faith and building lifelong memories.
Larkin recently graduated from Bishop Foley in Madison Heights and kicked off his 2013 summer with a six-week excursion in Russia. He was one of 625 students awarded a merit-based scholarship through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), which was launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of State.
The scholarship is offered to eligible high school students to study less commonly taught languages abroad.
“When I applied, they gave me three language choices, and I chose Russian, Hindi and Arabic,” Larkin said. “When they award you the scholarship, they coordinate with different funding organizations, and that’s where AFS came in.”
AFS was started by ambulance drivers after World War II with the purpose of preventing another world war from taking place, according to afs.org. The organization currently operates in more than 50 countries. AFS allows high school students to choose from a year, semester or summer programs.
Larkin served as a citizen diplomat in Russia with 15 other exchange students. He spent a total of six weeks in Kirov, Russia, which is approximately 600 miles east of Moscow.
“By Russian standards, it’s quite small,” Larkin said. “I thought it kind of parallel to the size of prosperous Detroit.”
Larkin participated in a unique, full-immersed program designed for students who haven’t studied Russian.
“We were in a hostel that used to be an old school,” he said. “Each morning, we would go to the classrooms and get a crash course in Russian.”
In the afternoons, Larkin and his group participated in different excursions, including interacting with children at a community camp and participating in Russia’s Youth Day festival, which is a celebration of the country’s youth.
Larkin stayed in an apartment with his host family, and his host brother Kirill Evdokimov, who is Larkin’s age, spoke excellent English.
As far as he could tell, his host family did not practice Catholicism, but Larkin recalls the kitchen being adorned with icons and trinkets. He said a memorable moment for him was when he compared his favorite saint with his host mother.
“From what I could gather, her favorite saint was St. Christopher, which was sentimental because I was a traveler,” he said.
Larkin said he appreciated experiencing the different culture.
“The thing I was surprised most about throughout my time in Russia was that the general population was far outwards with their affection,” he said, adding Russians are more open to share and display their friendship.
Larkin will continue his education at Western Michigan University this fall and plans on engaging in the Russian culture association in Kalamazoo.
AFS welcomed its first round of foreign students to Metro Detroit in the beginning of August.
Sarah Brock, who teaches at International Academy in Flint and volunteers with AFS, had her first experience with the organization when her grandparents began hosting students. It has since been a family tradition, which led Brock to study her junior year of high school in Japan in 2003.
Traveling abroad and experiencing Catholicism in a different culture gave her a better understanding and appreciation of her faith, she said.
“As a 10th grader, the term ‘universal Church’ doesn’t mean much to you. But when you’re in another country, another city, another culture, you understand it so much more,” she said.
At a national level, approximately 2,000 students come to the U.S., Brock explained, and approximately 45 come to Michigan for the school year.
“That’s why I think it would be exciting to get more Catholic families and schools in the Metro Detroit area involved with AFS,” Brock said. “Hosting an exchange student is a great expression of the Catholic faith. We’re not hosting. We are a universal family.”
Harning, a graduate of Regina High School and current fifth-year senior at the University of Michigan, studied abroad her junior year of high school in 2008.
Harning, like Larkin, was awarded a scholarship through DaimlerChrysler and traveled to a Germany for 11 months.
“I lived in a very small town between Munich and Passau, at the easternmost tip of Bavaria,” she said.
While continuing her education abroad, Harning attended Tassilo-Gymnasium, which was the highest level of secondary education in Germany. She said the school systems differ drastically from schools in America — from the classmates to the classes themselves.
“School was the most difficult part for me, considering I hardly knew German before I arrived and because they took so many classes,” she said.
Harning had two host families in Germany, and she became great friends with her second family, the Steiners. She had two host siblings who were close in age to Harning. She described her house as large and semi-divided, which was split between her host family and to the Steiners’ extended family.
The Steiner family was Catholic, but Harning said her host mother was the only member to attend Mass.
“It was nice having the same faith as my host family because even though no one really spoke of it, there was still comfort in knowing we shared the same beliefs,” she said.
Harning is now pursuing a dual-degree in German and movement science at Michigan and said her year abroad led her to continue her German education.
“My year abroad was one of the most formative times of my life,” she said. “When I look back, I don’t remember the minor setbacks. I remember a year filled with great friends and a great family.”
