Kilgore students returning from an exchange program which sent them to various U.S. states gave city council members an account of their travels and new friendships formed over the summer at a recent council meeting.
Recent KHS grad Matthew Tyeskie spoke to council about his adventures in Alaska, which saw the star Bulldog athlete hiking in the mountains, joining his first-ever snowball fight and spotting wildlife.
“The first day, we went hiking on a glacier,” Tyeskie said.
“(The other students) were great people. By the fifth day together, we were already planning our reunion. We went camping and a moose with its baby walked right through our campsite. We saw bears and up there, the bears are like our raccoons! They have to put locks on the trashcans to keep the bears out. I would definitely go back. I definitely appreciate the opportunity.”
The American Exchange Project, founded in 2019, gives recent high school grads the chance to experience different sides of American culture by taking week-long trips to a different part of the country. AEP operates in several cities around the country where exchange students stay with host families and learn about the culture, lifestyles, history and economies of the places they visit.
This year, Kilgore served as the host city for visiting students from Albany, California; Palo Alto, California; American Fork, Utah; Upper Valley, New Hampshire; Upper Valley, Virginia; and Missoula, Montana. Some Kilgore exchange students journeyed to Palo Alto, Alaska and Pennsylvania.
Another recent KHS grad, Sam Clements, told council about his experiences visiting Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“We made plenty of good friends,” Clements said.
“It was a completely life-changing experience. It was really cool to see the differences in the two cities.”
Clements remarked Scranton High students he spent time with had a sports rivalry with West Scranton High, just as Kilgore does with Henderson, and both cities have a “small town” feel, though Scranton’s population is 77,000 to Kilgore’s 15,000.
Clements allowed there was a bit of culture shock on the journey, as some Scranton natives invited him to enjoy a local delicacy known as a “Texas wiener”, a grilled hot dog split down the middle and served on a bun topped with mustard, chili and sweet onions.
“They asked me ‘do these remind you of home?’ and I said ‘no’,” Clements said.
Pastor Glenn Young of First Baptist Church, who works with the program, said the experience is educational for everyone involved, as many of the students visiting Kilgore from other states have never experienced things many East Texans take for granted: attending church on a Sunday morning, visiting a gun range and learning about the history of the local oil industry.
