Cultural exchange fosters understanding; Nebraska: Blair Community School District.

A cultural exchange program with Japan has helped students in Blair Community School District in Blair, Neb., gain a wider view of the world.

The issue that inspired the founding of the Blair-Seishin Exchange Program was the desire for students to gain greater exposure to other cultures and to foster different people's ability to get along.

The purpose of the program, which was created in 1990 and resulted in Blair Community School District being named a state winner in the 2006 National Civic Star Award competition, is twofold. It aims to introduce Blair students to the international community and Japanese culture by hosting Japanese students for two to three weeks during the summer.

It also familiarizes Blair students with Japanese culture and language by having them spend two to three weeks in Japan at Seishin Girls' High School.

Blair High School provides English instruction to the Japanese students and Japanese classes to Blair students who go to Japan. Students live with families in the respective cultures and participate in a variety of experiences and field trips while in the host countries.

In Blair, two coordinators organize the curriculum, cultural experiences and field trips with support from the school and community. School personnel who are integrally involved in the program are the school superintendent, Blair High School principal and assistant principal, several current and retired teachers, a job-shadow coordinator and a cultural instructor. Community partners include several business leaders, the Blair mayor, a state senator, retired teachers and Desoto National Wildlife Refuge.

Blair students assist with the English language classes by helping Japanese students understand English grammar and write speeches. They also accompany the Japanese students on field trips to shopping malls, the zoo, hay rides, baseball games, area businesses, the state capital, museums and other venues.

In addition, they help with activities such as making apple pies and corn husk dolls and teaching traditional dances. Blair and Seishin students spend the evenings and weekends attending movies and sports events and going swimming and shopping.

Evidence of the impact of the cultural exchange is demonstrated when Blair students visit Seishan. They demonstrate their capacity to be good students and citizens in their interactions with host families, Seishan students and teachers and other Japanese people they meet. Their charge is to act as ambassadors for their community while in Japan.

Since 1991, nearly 200 Seishan students have participated in the summer exchange. Seven Seishan students have successfully completed a year of study at Blair High School. Two of the seven have graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. One went on to graduate school at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and another attended Wartburg College in Iowa, where she graduated.

Forty-one Blair students have traveled to Japan as part of the exchange, and several Blair students have continued their Japanese studies in college. Blair has provided host families for the nearly 200 Japanese students, 16 teachers and 15 travel agents. Twenty-two Seishan students have returned to Blair to visit their host families, and many Blair families continue to communicate with the Japanese students after they return home.

For more information, contact Superintendent Steve Shanahan at Blair Community School District, 440 N. 10th St., P.O. Box 288, Blair, Neb. 68008, or call [phone]. The e-mail address is [e-mail].