Top Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Finland
Eugene Aronsky, who is visually impaired, learned these interesting facts and more when he participated in an AFS summer high school exchange to Finland.
Photo Caption: Eugene at home with his dog in Pittsburgh.
10. Nokia cell phones and Volvo cars are made in Finland.
9. Reindeer rugs are popular crafts to buy since they are soft…but they shed a lot!
8. Finland is more disability-accessible than Pittsburgh. For example, traffic lights beep to indicate when to cross the street.
7. It is near the Arctic Circle, but summers are warm enough to swim in Finland’s many lakes.
6. The current president is a woman named Tarja Halonen.
5. In the summer, the Finnish experience “white nights” when darkness rarely comes.
4. While you may know about the Finnish hot sauna experience followed by a jump in a cold lake, this is not something all people in Finland do.
3. Food is very similar to the western diet in the United States, and most people speak English quite well because it is taught in schools.
2. The basic education law of 1998 supports students with disabilities to attend schools with their non-disabled peers, although eight schools for students with disabilities also exist in Finland.
1. There are seventeen U.S. exchange organizations that send high school students to Finland listed in the online database.
Want to experience more? Visit Virtual Finland full of beautiful photographs and descriptions.
AFS PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT
Eugene Aronsky attended the AFS Intercultural Program to Finland. AFS is a nonprofit organization that provides international learning opportunities abroad for young people to develop your knowledge, skills and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world. This program began ninety years ago, and has sent 11,000 people abroad since then.
With over 100 programs - year, semester, and summer - to choose from, AFS-USA offers a wide variety of options if you are between the ages of 14 to 18. AFS experiences are focused on providing you with the opportunity to gain the skills and self-confidence to successfully contribute to an ever-changing world. AFS-USA also offers programs for recent high school graduates interested in studying or participating in community service programs in other countries. You learn how you can contribute positively to your communities and to the world.
On AFS programs, you live with host families and take part in the local academic and community life. In the eight week summer program high school students live in another culture, develop new language skills and make new friends. Another option for students is a semester program or year long program.
AFS is committed is to providing increased access to their programs to groups that are traditionally underserved and underrepresented in exchange programs; this includes young people with disabilities. AFS has had experience with participants with amputations and with visual, hearing, physical and medically-related disabilities. Past participants with disabilities have gained the same level of experiential learning and found the programs just as rewarding as nondisabled participants. AFS is a member of the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange Roundtable Consortium, a group of disability and exchange organizations working to increase participation of people with disabilities in international exchange programs. AFS invites people with disabilities to participate in its programs and to be host families for youth from abroad. To learn more, contact:
AFS-USA
71 West 23rd Street, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Tel: (212) 807-8686 or (800) 237-4636
Email: info@afs.org
Web: www.afs.org/usa
Photo Caption: If you are volunteering overseas, learn about ideas for adapations.