8/24/2007 - Family plays host to Siberian teen through AFS

Carolyn Sebasky
What’s Up contributor

Andover has a new future international leader in town this school year, and she is attending Andover High School.

Mariya Fesak, whose nickname is Masha, will be spending the year with the MacDonald family of Andover, through American Field Service Intercultural Programs and a program called Future Leaders Exchange. The U.S. government-sponsored program invites young students from Europe and Asia to come to study in America.

AFS, a nonprofit organization, finds host families for Future Leaders Exchange students like Fesak, who is from Russia. It also provides local volunteers who help the host families to accommodate their foreign student. In Andover, Petra Habel-Rollins is an AFS volunteer who has helped the MacDonald family and Fesak, and Habel-Rollins’ family is hosting a German student this year as well. They are among 2,700 families in the U.S. who are hosting exchange students through AFS.

One Andover student will take advantage of the program and head abroad for the school year.

The MacDonald family has never hosted a student before, but say they are very excited to have Fesak in their home. Jodi MacDonald was informed last fall about AFS by a friend, and she “spoke to (the friend’s) family and they were very enthusiastic about it. (The family) all view it as a great opportunity to learn about another culture.”

Originally, the MacDonalds had wanted a Spanish-speaking student because their daughter, Amanda, an eighth-grader at West Middle School, has been studying Spanish. After reviewing Fesak’s application, though, “(they) all agreed that she would be a good fit with (their) family. Amanda and Scott, a fifth-grader at Sanborn, are excited about having a big sister. They have been e-mailing Masha since (they) found out she was coming to (live with them),” Jodi MacDonald said in an e-mail.

Also, after conducting a lot of research on Fesak’s home in Siberia, Amanda MacDonald spoke a lot with Fesak before she arrived to “let her know what to expect when she gets to Andover,” said Jodi MacDonald.

The MacDonalds don’t speak any Russian, but in her e-mails to the family, Fesak’s English was very good. According to Jodi MacDonald, “AFS has cautioned that speaking and understanding conversations may be difficult for exchange students,” even if their written English is proficient. She now knows that “(Fesak’s) English is very good but sometimes (they) don’t understand each other. The good thing is that Masha lets (the family) know if she doesn’t understand something and is very good about asking for help if something isn’t clear.”

The MacDonalds expect the year to be a learning experience for both them and Fesak.

The family “thought it would a powerful way to help (us) to see beyond (our) own situation. We can learn about a part of the world that is very different from ours,” said Jodi MacDonald in an e-mail. “At the same time we will face the challenge of playing guide, mentor, parent and sibling to someone with needs we may not have encountered before. In helping Mariya and answering her questions, we may learn more about ourselves and what is important to us.”

Through Future Leaders Exchange, the federal government encourages students from other countries to experience American-style democracy, and hopes they will bring these values to their home country. With the help of the MacDonalds, AFS and all of the community of Andover, Jodi MacDonald said she hopes Fesak will “learn that Andover is a great town with friendly people who care about their community, both local and global.”