John J. Crist

October 24, 2006

International Cultural Exchange Services has located its headquarters office on Hurricane Creek in Putnam County says President John J. Crist.

Why?

"We can operate three months here for what it took to run an office for one month in San Francisco," he responded.

But that's only one of the reasons. Putnam is centrally located, and a large number of exchange students served by the nonprofit organization are placed in the area.

ICES this year has 42 exchange students in West Virginia, and 800 in the United States, Crist told Putnam Rotarians in their noon luncheon today.

Since its beginnings in 1991, ICES has sought to increase awareness and understanding through student exchanges. "The greatest problems we face are cultural," he says. "In place of the former Soviet Union," says Crist, "we are now dealing with sixteen separate countries. Many of them have high Moslem populations.

"In many Moslem areas the girls are trained to never look a man directly in the eye -- dad or brother included. That would be considered flirtatious."

Turkey is on the divide between the Moslem world and the West, Crist noted. "Istanbul, the largest city, is in Europe and highly westernized in customs and outlook. Turkey is a member of NATO.

"But Turkey is criticized by other Moslem nations for its western leanings," he said.

"For the first time, the number of foreign students coming to the United States for study is in decline," said Crist. "After Nine/Eleven the State Department cancelled study visas for a number of foreign students. Many of them had already paid the costs of tuition, rent, and other needs.

"They lost their money, and they had to find other places to go to school."

Exposure to other cultures and ways of life has a dramatic impact on particiants. At one time, many exchange students arrived in this country thinking that the United States represented in film and on television was propaganda.

Of course, says Crist, many of our students going abroad were surprised to find things were not so bleak as they had been taught.

The cultural exchange program is funded by grants and charges to participants and their families. Most of the services in this country are assumed by volunteers and host families.