By Stephen Rutherford
Photo: October 2025: Aslan (middle) introduces his wife, Sabina, to his former host dad. The Rutherford family hosted Aslan in St. Louis for the 2012-13 school year
“I don’t have to observe Ramadan, but I want to because I like the challenge.” Aslan, our new high school exchange student from Jordan, explained the intricacies of his Muslim faith to us as we were not religious. Aslan worked hard to fit in with our family and do well at his school, Parkway Central. That was in 2012, and our bond remains today. In 2018, Aslan brought his entire family to St. Louis to meet us and in 2025 we met him and his wife in Germany.
Aslan was given the opportunity to come to the USA through the YES Program, a merit scholarship funded by the State Department. It was started after 9/11 with bipartisan support. The program gives teens from predominantly Muslim countries the opportunity to live for one school year in the USA. It also provides opportunities for American teens to live in those countries. However, this may be the final year of the program as the State Department recently decided to pause funding.
High school exchange programs grew out of the tragedy of World War II. President Eisenhower was an early supporter because he understood that while the military can be a palliative for war, building peace called for something deeper. Eisenhower said that citizen exchanges answered three important questions. How do we dispel ignorance? How do we learn from others and have them learn from us? How do we build friendships across nations?
Muhammad is one of this year’s YES Program scholarship recipients. He attends Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School, and said, “I was expecting it to be a difficult start, but as soon as I joined MRH, everyone was very welcoming, and I immediately started making friends. Everyone was extremely nice, especially the cross-country team, who treated me like family—the coaches and my teammates. I will forever be thankful to them for being some of the best friends I made during my exchange year.”
In St. Louis, there are four reputable nonprofit organizations that provide strong local support to host families and exchange students. Families interested in hosting can contact AFS, American Councils, AYUSA or World Heritage. These organizations administer various scholarship programs, and some also place tuition paying students.
Imagine how the world would be if every family had a son or daughter from another country? We hope other families will consider what we did by sharing their home and changing the world.