Center for Cultural Interchange and Greenheart Blog

A $1.50 doesn’t seem like much on a hot summer day. It’s just one water bottle. What harm could it do? Little do we realize that about 500 million other people in the US think the same way each week. That’s enough bottles to circle the globe five times! That $1.50 in reality, is contributing to a steadily growing problem: water overconsumption. Read more.

CCI was thrilled to meet 16 Moldovan and 4 Jamaican students in Raleigh, NC for a mini-orientation. The hot sticky weather and lack of sleep did not deter these go-getters from their excitement as they were getting ready to hit the beach! Read More

 My exchange year is almost over, and my American dream is going to finish soon. I think that this year was the most successful, productive and fun year in my life. I can call it “a year of experiences” because I experienced a lot of new things, I learned and gained many useful skills for me and my country’s future improvement. I feel blessed, when I remember everything that I have done during this year, so I decided to share the experiences that were very important for me and will always stay in my memory. Read More.

 Greenheart Club members are making a difference!  This past spring, Jie Yin of Thailand came to the U.S. as a Work and Travel student working in Medora, North Dakota.  Medora is also home to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a gorgeous park reserve containing an endless species of plants and wildlife, as well as the beautiful North Dakota Badlands.  This is where Jie Yin decided to focus her project! Read more...

Once a month from December to April, Area Representative Bunny Esposito picked up the CCI high school exchange students she supervised and drove them all to Oak Street Elementary School in Plattsburgh, New York. The students spent an hour working with 5^th graders on a Global Village project. The volunteer project culminated in Global Village Night, with displays, food, and the 5th graders - and CCI students - speaking new languages! Read more

Itching for a change? Want to experience a new culture and get paid? CCI's Greenheart Travel division has an amazing program to teach English in Korea. We even made the Chicago Sun-Times Travel Section! Check out the article and also read more about our teach abroad program. 

By Ketevan Chitashvili, CCI FLEX Exchange Student

Hello dear CCI and Greenheart! My amazing year in America has been continuing and I want to tell you about another unforgettable experience that will stay in my memory forever! My host family and I went on our spring break vacation, so I had a privilege to see America's gorgeous sights, to meet people in other states, to make some friends, and learn more about this country and its culture. Read more...

By Joanna Flagler, Center for Cultural Interchange

Last month, we asked our Facebook fans to nominate us for Mindful Metropolis' Reader's Choice 2010: Best of Mindful Chicago Awards and they delivered! We just found out that CCI, Greenheart Shop and Emanuel Kuntzelman (our President and Founder) have been selected as a finalist in 10 categories! Read more.

Take a few minutes and vote for us by May 7 at www.mindfulmetropolis.com/vote. Thank you!

Ketevan Chitashvili, an CCI FLEX exchange student from The Republic of Georgia, recalls her visit to the Idaho State Capitol on February 15-16. Ketevan, along with other CCI exchange students, had a chance to meet the Governor, Senators, and Representatives and learn more about their work in the government. The students had the opportunity to talk about their time living and volunteering in their host communities. Read more.