Your high school senior may just be back from winter break, but the founder of a relatively new nationwide student exchange program is asking them to think ahead to summer.
And the opportunity of a lifetime.
We first told you about the American Exchange Program (AEP) a couple of years ago when three students — two from California and one from Maine, made their way to Moody County and South Dakota for a week-long exchange program through a local sponsor.
That same summer, five Flandreau teens signed up for the same adventure, all in different areas of the country. More, including Arianna Weston, who is now studying Dakota Language and Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, have gone since.
AEP, founded by David McCullough III, sends high school seniors on a free, week-long trip to a hometown very different from their own.

The catch? McCullough will tell you there is no catch other than to connect a very divided country. Concerned about the level of polarization that exists and what he feels that is doing to our faith in one another and our democracy, McCullough simply wants kids from different backgrounds to connect. He’s hoping through them, the youth of the nation will see how much they actually have in common.
In 2023, the program partnered with 53 high schools in 31 states. His goal is to offer the experience to a million students a year by the end of the decade.
The deadline to apply is looming if not already past for this next summer.
“I was really dreadful the week leading up to it because I was thinking I might not want to go anymore,” Weston said of her AEP experience in the Bay area of California.
“It was really nice though and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was a very different environment to be in and it was cool getting to live in this completely and totally different place than what I’m used to being in.”
Despite Flandreau not officially being an AEP school, Weston applied for the exchange and was granted through another program in Sioux Falls.
While home over winter break, Weston reflected on the events of the past year. She wants to encourage other local seniors to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I feel like my view of just how big America is is different, how diverse it is. When I went, I didn’t feel like I was a minority. It was really interesting, actually. I guess I’m just really used to Flandreau and how small it is, population and sometimes how people think. It was a whole different experience, it was really nice.”
Weston was among a number of AEP students featured in an October CBS news story on the program. For more information on how it works, the people making it happen and the deadline to apply, check out https://www.americanexchangeproject.org/. To watch the story that Weston was a part of, search for or log onto
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/students-making-friends-across-the-american-divide/.