A small thread ... Our incoming exchange students -- the future "Class of 2021" -- are eager to begin their year in the United States. Their hope and enthusiasm amazes me in this time of stress and uncertainty.

There are even new applications in the EF High School Exchange Year that show students have been submitting in the middle of lock down or stay-at-home mandates in various countries. Students are clinging to their American dream and have hope that this, too, shall pass.

3/ I don't know what the future will bring. But I believe that having foreign exchange students in our schools and communities allows us to connect across a world that has been both isolated and unified in a way that none of us have ever experienced.

4/ I believe that cultural exchange will be more important in times to come than ever before. And I'm worried about how it will all turn out. (end of thread for now ... welcome friends' and colleagues' thoughts...)