Promoting Mutual Understanding through Educational Exchange

1. Promoting Mutual Understanding through Educational Exchange Vail Kohnert-Yount Lesley Kucharski Anastasia Kravtsova Artem Merkuschev

3. Why did they study where they did?

4. Importance of Mutual Understanding Mutual understanding between citizens of these two countries is improving However, more progress must be made

5. Bilateral Presidential Commission “President Medvedev and I are creating a U.S.-Russian Bilateral Presidential Commission to serve as a new foundation for this cooperation. Too often, the United States and Russia only communicate on a narrow range of issues, or let old habits within our bureaucracy stand in the way of progress.” “We decided to create a presidential commission on cooperation, which will be coordinating relations among various agencies of the United States and the Russian Federation, respectively, in all priority areas, including economic and military areas.”

6. Americans Studying Russian

7. Americans and Russians on Exchange

8. Exchange Experience

9. FLEX FLEX provides scholarships for high school students from Eurasia to spend an academic year in the United States Student live with an American family and attend an American high school More than 23,000 high school students from CIS countries have taken part in the FLEX program in its 20 year existence In 2012-13, 800 FLEX students are studying in the U.S. Fully funded by the U.S. government

10. CIEE Nonprofit, non-governmental international exchange founded in 1947 Established first study abroad in Russia opportunity for American students in 1967 Students study at Saint Petersburg State University while living with Russian families From 2007 to 2012, participation increased by 110%, reflecting the positive trend of Americans studying in Russia During the 2010-2011 academic year, 10% of Americans studying in Russia were CIEE participants

11. Fulbright Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that offers students, teachers, artists, and other professionals to teach or conduct research abroad Funded by U.S. Congress, private donors, universities, and binational Fulbright Commissions In 2010, 149 of the organization’s 6,000 grants were awarded to Russians Offers 80-90 awards annually to U.S. citizens who want to travel to Russia

12. Why did they choose Russia and the U.S.? American response: studying some combination of russian, russian literature, and russian history Future prospect and simply intrigue were also indicated (not as prevalent) Russian response: learn another culture perfect language skills Professional development and a valuable experience (not as prevalent)

13. Reasons for Choosing a Program Americans Russians Strong connection between a program and their home university Finances Limited options Finances Organization Reputation Flexible, not long Degree, publication Didn't know about anything else

14. Finances • Visas • To Russia - $140 + $30 processing fee • To America- $160 • Principal road-block for Russians • No program fully sponsored by the Russian government that sends people abroad for even an academic semester • For Americans, finances were important, but can find resources from their college, government, or other source

15. How did they share their experience?

16. Impact of the Exchange Experience 81% of the respondents say, after participating in a an exchange program their understanding of Russian/American culture, politics and history increased significantly (the rest say “increased”) 88% believe that cultural exchanges promote mutual understanding and respect between Americans and Russians (the rest say, “I don’t know”) 70% were either influenced of strongly influenced to pursue academic or professional career related to US-Russia relations

17. Impact of the Exchange Experience • “The way to change [negative perceptions] is to just hang out with one person at a time. We'retheambassadorsthereinmanyways” “I wouldn't say the program directly promoted this in a large way, but because it presented and promoted opportunities to interact with Russians”

18. Impact of the Exchange Experience The view of Russians/Americans after participating in a program:

19. What role has this experience played in your life?

20. Summary • Perceptionsareimproving • There is stagnation in studying abroad on both sides • Increased interest in studying Russian among Americans • Main reasons for studying abroad differ: Americans related to their field of study Russians opportunities, experience, language

21. Summary continued • Program choice: Americans strong connections with university, limited options, finances Russians lack of awareness, full funding • Finances were very important in the decision to study abroad, especially for Russians. • Participant perceptions were most positively influenced and they helped improve perceptions of friends and family. • Respondents shared their experience most through social media. A large percent of Russian participants made a school project about their experience.

22. Summary Americans Russians “I had been studying Russian in college for 2 years and knew I wouldn't make any substantial improvements unless I actually spent time in Russia.” “It was the only program to Russia my school worked with.” “It was by chance - the only program I’ve heard of at the time.” “I didn’t even know about others.” “There are more opportunities in the U.S. than in Russia.” “I’ve chosen FLEX because it gave me full scholarship and a monthly allowance. Otherwise, I could not afford it to study abroad for a year.” “It seemed like a great opportunity to see the world and gain more experiences, meet different kinds of people and represent my homeland in places where people have never heard of it.”

23. Recommendations Increase participants Improve experience Russia needs to invest more money Create programs targeted toward younger adults Create selective flagship programs Market programs to American youth better Build connections with U.S. universities Require post-exchange experience sharing in home community Require online posting to encourage peer-to-peer interaction