Salt Lake resident Bre Albertine spent a week in New York City this summer with a group of peers from all over the country as part of the American Exchange Project.

“It was very immersive with all the other students that were there, but also with other cultures, and different parts of New York—I really felt like I got to know the city,” Albertine said.

AEP founder David McCullough III created the domestic exchange program in 2019 as a research project to heal a divided country.

“I think the emotional/social benefits of the program are enormous,” he said. “And then also as a way of breeding a more civil society, I think the program could be a real antidote to polarization.”

After their exchange experiences, students report feeling more optimistic about the future of America and increased faith in their fellow Americans.

“We see them becoming less biased toward people who are different from them or disagree with them,” McCullough said. “We see them more excited about hanging out with people who are different from them.”

This summer, 500 students are participating in one of the 62 all-expense paid AEP exchanges hosted in 54 different towns across the country. 

Albertine participated as a recent graduate of Mountain Height Academy, which sent 14 recent graduates on exchange and hosted 12 students for a week in June.

MHA graduate AnaSofia Bravo, who lives in Brigham City, was assigned an exchange to New Mexico. Initially, she was worried because she’d heard it has the highest crime rate in the U.S. but she was excited to experience a cave full of bats and to learn about Native American culture.

Similarly, some exchange participants had concerns about coming to West Jordan, Utah.

Zofia Kosakowski, from the small town of Fairlee, Vermont, said her mom was concerned about the cults and religions she’d heard were in Utah.

“I was like, that’s the whole point of AEP, to go there and see and break all these stereotypes,” she said. 

Nathanael Hahn, from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said Utahns weren’t like what he had expected.

“Most of them seem pretty normal, even the Mormon ones,” Hahn said. “Everyone has been very nice.”

 As a political science major, Hahn was interested in getting to know people with different politics, cultures and religions. “It’s important to have an understanding of what matters to people and what they think needs to change in this country,” he said.

Those from small cities were surprised by how condensed the cities were and how many highways connected them, and those from big cities were surprised by the close proximity to nature. 

Amaris Hammiel Carter, who lives in downtown Los Angeles, California, loved staying in the foothills of her host family’s Herriman neighborhood.

“I’m a city girl through and through, but being sent to Utah, it was definitely a really cool experience to see just all the nature, specifically the Jensen’s home was right near the mountains—like they were next door neighbors,” she said.

Carter initially thought the exchange would be a fun way to spend a week of summer but it ended up changing her perspective.

“Seeing how people are in a state that I’m very unfamiliar with, it kind of shifted my thinking about traveling the country that I live in, and maybe to not be as afraid of what I expect I might come across, and more so, just being open to experiencing different things, and just trying to be more of an open-minded person,” she said.

Teresa Akagi, who has been the AEP program coordinator for MHA for two years, said the participants form strong friendships through spending time together and through prompted activities which encourage participants to share personal experiences and beliefs to connect at a deeper level.

She said by the end of the exchange, they don’t want to leave each other.

With input from MHA students, and donations from local businesses, Akagi put together a full itinerary to give exchange students a true Utah experience and met the program’s four category requirements of professional development, service, cultural immersion and community events.

During their one week visit, the exchange students, along with local students, went hiking, rafting and watched the sunset on the Salt Flats. They toured HAFB’s museum, Union train station, the state capitol, Mrs. Cavanaugh’s Chocolate Factory and a radio station. They went to Lagoon, a REAL soccer game, Olympic Park, saw a show at Hale Centre Theatre, met with Utah politicians, got drinks at Swig, made blankets for an animal shelter and were gifted blankets on a tour of Minky Couture.

MHA and American Fork High School are currently the only Utah schools participating in AEP, but McCullough is working to expand the program in Utah.  λ