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In honor of Valentine's Day, YES Abroad students in Macedonia visited a local elementary school on February 10 to share the holiday and its traditions with a class of first graders. This was the second time the YES Abroad students visited Elementary School Braka Ramiz & Hamid in Sutka, a neighborhood of Skopje with the largest Roma settlement in Macedonia. The last time the YES Abroad students visited the elementary school was to celebrate Halloween, so the first graders were excited to learn about another American holiday and its traditions. In describing the class, Maxwell M. wrote, “One of the teachers, Ms. Valentina, is absolutely wonderful. She makes sure that each of her students is prepared for school and has their basic necessities met, which was a challenging task for her to accomplish. The children she teaches are always attentive and excited to learn something new.”

The YES Abroad students spent three hours with the class promoting American culture and sharing the history behind Valentine’s Day while making Valentine’s Day cards. Marina G. added, “Although our activities with the kids could be categorized as ‘arts and crafts,’ I feel like what we are really doing is starting to build a bridge with these kids. We are their first encounter with an American (and they may never have more), and it's so important to show them that we aren't all like the sterotypes.”

While reflecting on their experiences, the YES Abroad students came to the consensus that volunteering at the elementary school is a great way to stay involved in the community and that they’d like to continue volunteering there throughout the rest of the year. In summarizing the day, Brendan S. wrote, “Despite having a limited ability to communicate with the children through written or spoken language, I felt it did not hinder our ability to connect well. By the end of the activity, we had left a lasting positive influence on the students and the school not only through the cards we made, but also through the experiences we had and connections we made with the children.”