Sitka student exchanges face uncertain times

Sitka AFS exchange students Chiara Bonavoglia, from Italy, and Abhi Abhinav, from India, talk with program volunteer Connie Kreiss during a picnic at Pioneer Park on Sunday, May 31, 2026. (James Poulson)

By Cathy Li

Daily Sitka Sentinel

Two high school exchange students, from Moldova and Germany, are confirmed to arrive in Sitka for the 2026-27 school year through the organization AFS Intercultural Programs, despite rollbacks of federal funding for some AFS programs.

AFS programs are funded by both public and private sources, and some students also self-fund through individual scholarships from non-AFS affiliated sources. The organization was previously known as the American Field Service, but now goes by the AFS acronym only.

The three largest United States Department of State funded programs, which provide full scholarships to selected students, are the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) for students from Europe and Eurasia; Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for American and German students; and the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES), a post-9/11 program established by U.S. senators Ted Kennedy and Richard Lugar for students from strategically-important countries.

The Moldovan and German students expected in Sitka are funded through FLEX and CBYX, respectively.

Candace O’Malley, a representative of the AFS-USA media team, said the number of national FLEX participants will be reduced, and the YES program has been paused for at least the first semester of the 2026-27 school year.

The CBYX program is unaffected as a jointly funded program by the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag.

For the 2025-26 school year, FLEX and YES both welcomed 655 participants each, placed across the United States, O’Malley said in an email to the Sentinel. She does not yet know the reduced number of FLEX participants, but received “recent solicitation” for a smaller semester-based YES program, serving 270 participants, to begin in Spring 2027.

“The U.S. Department of State has informed implementing organizations of programmatic changes affecting certain exchange programs. We remain in regular communication with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and continue to work closely with them,” O’Malley said in the emailed statement.

“Our current understanding is that, following the 2027–28 program year, the U.S. Department of State intends to transition the YES and FLEX programs to a revised/adjusted program model. However, no specific information has been announced, and there is currently no established timeline for when additional details will be released,” O’Malley continued.

Abhi Abhinav, a 2025-26 exchange student from India, came to Sitka through the paused YES program. He was a junior at Sitka High School and returned home last week after 10 months as an exchange student here.

Giorgi Jajanidze, a FLEX scholarship recipient who was co-valedictorian in this year's graduating class at Sitka High, returned to his home country of Georgia in May.

“If students from other countries are coming to the U.S., and U.S. students are going to other countries, it’s an exchange of culture, tradition, food — everything. People are going to share their emotions and share their ideas, so it’s going to be like a mutual kind of understanding and growth,” Abhinav said. “The current situation is, everywhere war is going on. If students are aware, if they have a good mind and like interacting with other people, they are not going to be involved in such disgusting things. It’s like building humanity between two countries.”

From running track (despite not liking it very much) and playing percussion in the Sitka Community Orchestra (he liked it so much he joked about making a gong his carry-on), to visiting Idaho, Oregon, New York and Washington, D.C., throughout the year, Abhinav said he tried to make the most of his experience in the United States.

Although Abhinav said he really needs to “lock in” returning to VidyaGyan School in India, if he doesn’t want to be “totally done,” he enjoyed the opportunity to try a more application-focused learning style. Whereas a math class at VidyaGyan would be mostly theory, Abhinav’s Sitka High business math class, which was one of his favorites, taught him how to invest and navigate the stock market.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s easy or hard, the knowledge is really good. I came to know about so many things that I wasn’t aware of. There were so many new experiences, so much new learning for me,” Abhinav said.

He said he has friends who were excited about applying to the YES program after he told them about his experience, although “it totally depends on the government how they want to do the programs. It’s [the government's] choice; we cannot do anything on this.”

“But I don’t particularly feel good because I was thinking there are more students who are going to come,” Abhinav said. “They were really excited, but now there’s no exchange, so they are going to be sad.”

Despite nation-wide changes to the State Department-sponsored programs, local AFS coordinators are still busy at work making Sitka a welcoming place for the incoming 2026-27 students.

Retired AFS volunteer Connie Kreiss said she is looking for two more host families in Sitka for two additional FLEX students from Ukraine and Poland. By Kreiss’ estimate, AFS has been active in Sitka for over 40 years, with around 80 families hosting more than 100 students.

“I’m disappointed that the State Department is no longer funding these programs at the level they used to because I think these are the countries of the world that we really need to learn about," Kreiss said. "These are countries where many parents don’t have the money to pay for students to [go abroad], so we get so much more diversity, cultural richness from having these kids in Sitka,”

For families hesitant about hosting an exchange student, AFS volunteer and host parent Krisanne Rice has some advice.

“There’s never a good time. They’re not here to be a guest; they’re here to be your son and daughter. If I was their birth parents, I would want them to be treated just like their siblings would be,” Rice said. “It’s a great challenge. It’s real stuff. It’s good for people to work out misunderstandings and move through them and become solid friends.”

Chiara Bonavoglia, a 2025-26 self-funded student, will be leaving Sitka on June 15.

“This year changed my life forever," Bonavaglia said. "I’m not the same person as [I was] in September. I don’t actually know what about me changed — I think I’m going to figure that out when I go back to Italy — but I feel changed in a good way.”

• This article originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.