Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Program

Partnerships for Learning  

YES is an innovative high school exchange program, funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which focuses on developing an understanding between our country and the Islamic world.

AFS is one of several partners in the YES consortium, which believes that we must build bridges of understanding and mutual respect between the U.S. and many countries around the world. The consortium further believes that today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and are among the best “bridge builders” between nations. The program seeks to build bridges of international understanding, especially between Americans and people in countries with significant Muslim populations.

For more information about the YES program, visit www.yesprograms.org

On November 15, 2005, eight YES students from the Fresno and El Centro areas, met with several entertainment executives for a lively, interactive roundtable discussion, conducted at the Institute for Creative Technology (ICT) in Marina del Rey, to discuss movie and TV portrayal of people from Islamic countries. The students, Naif, Ibrahim, Ilayda, Gery, Tyo, Aziz, Tara and Sharifa, also shared with us about life, in general, in their home countries, which include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Egypt.  Below are some pictures of that event.

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