International Education Week Contest

ACES invited its exchange students to participate in our annual International Education Week Contest last winter by giving cultural presentations for groups in their local communities and documenting them through photography and written essays. After looking through the amazing collection of entries, we finally found our winner…Jhalak from India! Jhalak was selected for her outstanding effort in giving a cultural presentation and traditional Indian dance performance (“Bharatnatyam”) for three different audiences: a first grade class, the Senior Citizen Living Center, and a group of students from her high school. Here is what our winner had to say after receiving the award

A short essay from the winner of IEW Contest

I cannot believe, it’s just three months left!!!!

I am sure every exchange student will agree with me…that these months went faster than we had thought of. As I look back, I feel happy about my whole experience, the new things I learnt, so many activities I did in my school, getting good grades and making my host family proud!

I am sure these months were full of ups and downs… My host family always says…that your experience will be like a roller coaster! Hahaha…and for sure it was. It is slow when it climbs the heights and it feels great to be on top of the world and when it goes down, it goes pretty fast…or I would say, Super-fast! That means that even when we are sad or depressed for some reason, that time passes faster than you would think.

Like today for example, my host mom and dad were talking about how proud they were to have me. And I was so honored to hear that. It feels great! The reason why I am writing today is that I just got a huge courier….i opened it. It said that I am the winner of the International Education Week Contest and a finalist of International Recipe Contest! I got a certificate for that and I won a laptop bag. Nobody knows how happy I was. There was an article on me which showed my pictures performing bharatnatyam in USA. Yes, I did a lot of presentation and went to different places…just because I love it. On Friday, April 1st I am participating in a talent show where I am going to perform Bharatnatyam. Thus, at last just want to say Thank you! To everyone who has a part in this.

My families (notice that family is plural now), ACES USA, AFS YES, all my friends, local coordinators!