IFYE Orientation: What to Expect

Hello there! This summer I will be participating as an IFYE (International Farm Youth Exchange) delegate from the U.S. to Morocco. During this experience I will be staying with host families throughout Morocco and learning about agriculture from them. To start off this program I had orientation for a long weekend in Washington DC with fellow IFYEs who are traveling across the world, as well as inbound IFYEs from other countries who are coming to stay in the US. This blog post will be a helpful post for future IFYEs discussing orientation and my experience here in DC.

As I was preparing for this orientation I had a lot of questions running through my mind as well as a lot of nerves. I had no idea what to expect, no schedule for what was happening and was about be surrounded by 20+ people who I have never met before. I have to be honest it was a little uncomfortable at first. None of us had ever seen each other in person before, so finding each other at the airports was awkward with the "Hi are you here for IFYE?" hoping you weren't saying this to a random person. And then trying to find things to talk about that were not just "What country are you going to?" However, as orientation progressed and LOTS of icebreakers were completed we all got to know each other and build strong connections to help carry us through this experience.

When arriving in DC, Alan Lambert, the IFYE National Director, was at the airport to help us get our luggage and move from the airport to the hotel. We stayed in a hotel that fed us all of our meals as well as provide a conference room to host all of our orientation activities. For our orientation, we had two past IFYEs help run it from 2018 and 2019 which was super helpful to hear about their experiences from not that long ago.

During orientation we completed a variety of sessions to help us prepare for our IFYE experience. We listened and asked questions to an IFYE alumni panel, learned about communication and active listening, had talks about safety and how to conduct ourselves, a photography lesson and more. These sessions helped us prepare for what to expect when in our host country as well as give us tools to deal with challenges when they come up.

My personal favorite session was about mental health and taking care of yourself while being an IFYE. We had a guest speaker Zoom in who helped us learn about different ways to prioritize our mental health and take care of ourselves with all of the new changes and unknowns we will face in the coming months. We completed a chair yoga exercise, meditated together, did a practice journaling prompt and learned about the importance of our thoughts. I am sure I will find myself thinking back to this session as I navigate the stresses and unknowns of being in a new country.

An exciting aspect of this orientation is the opportunity to meet the inbound IFYEs from across the world who will be staying with host families in the United States. This year we had one person from Austria, one from Switzerland, four from Germany, and two from South Korea. We had lots of time to get to know each other and help prepare each other for what to expect in our respective countries. If there was someone coming to the US from the country you are going to, it is likely that you were rooming with them and have the opportunity to learn from them. Since Morocco is a new program, there was no one from Morocco coming to the US, but I still loved connecting with everyone and learning from them.

Along with all of the trainings and orientation information we also had some fun in DC. On Sunday we spent the day exploring the National Mall. We saw the White House, Washington Monument, the Vietnam War Memorial, and more. In the afternoon we had some free time to wander around and my group and I saw Pharrell Williams, an impromptu dance and fashion show, the Smithsonian future museum, as well as the botanical garden (we started out planning to just go to the botanical garden). The best part of this day was being able to show the inbounds the country capital, seeing what they liked best and their thoughts on it all.

Time for me to sign off and pack for my flight to Morocco tonight! Catch ya next week.