McGuffey graduate goes global as exchange student
Ty Bedillion, a recent graduate of McGuffey High School, is shown with his host parents, Erco and Ute Rao, in Germany.
Ty Bedillion is shown with the sons of his host parents, Nico and Carlo Rao.
Ty Bedillion graduated from McGuffey High School via Skype, and that was OK with him.
After all, he was in Germany at the time.
Bedillion spent his senior year in Germany as part of a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship, an all expense-paid program that he learned about when he stopped by the State Department table in Washington, D.C., at a college fair two summers ago.
“I was already interested in studying abroad, and I told the woman I didn’t have a big budget, and she said they had a program that may be suited for me,” said Bedillion, son of Tommy and Charlene Bedillion of South Franklin Township.
After submitting his application and attending an interview at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning in January 2016, Bedillion received a phone call in late March that he was accepted into the program. He would be going to Germany in September 2016 for 10 months.
Bedillion had one slight challenge: He didn’t know any German before boarding the plane. He had only spoken with his host family a couple times via email and Skype. His host parents, Erco and Ute Rao, spoke English, as well as two of their three sons. Erco Rao is a pharmaceutical biologist and has traveled to the United States. The middle brother, Nico, studied in Lebanon, Pa., two years ago, and the youngest, Carlo, will be studying in Arkansas this year.
“The first two months in school were pretty slow and awkward,” said Bedillion, referring to the language barrier. He had six classes taught in German and three in English. Several students in his classes had studied abroad in the United States and knew English, so they helped him learn the language and meet other people.
“After the seventh month,” he said, “I felt like I was a German.”
Bedillion still keeps in touch with the many friends he made through social media, including Snapchat, Instagram and Whatsapp.
In addition to attending school, Bedillion was fortunate to take several of sightseeing trips. During winter break, the family took a 10-day vacation to Austria to ski and snowboard. They also spent two days in Switzerland and one day in Italy.
The family celebrated Christmas while in Austria. Bedillion said he was surprised to learn that Christmas is celebrated in the afternoon of Dec. 24. While he missed his family in the states, spending Christmas in Austria was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
During his study abroad, Bedillion also visited Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart and Paris. Before coming home, he spent two weeks with his host brothers, Nico and Carlo, at their grandparents’ home on top of a mountain overlooking the beach in Longobardi at the southern tip of Italy.
“It was beautiful,” Bedillion said. “The water was so clear and so blue, and it never rained. It was always in the 80s.”
He keeps in touch with his host family via a group chat.
“They treated me like their own sons,” he said of the Rao family. “My host mom was the nicest lady ever. My host dad was nice, too, but he put the rules down when he needed to, kept me in line. He was the same with his sons as he was with me.”
Bedillion hopes to study abroad again in college. He will attend Washington & Jefferson College to major in physics, with plans to study aerospace engineering after that.
“I think (being an exchange student) really broadened my mind to the whole world – not just Washington, Pa.,” he said. “It made me think more globally, and made me more confident in myself as a person. If I can go and do that, what else can I do?”
Asked if he had any advice for students considering studying abroad, Bedillion said, “Go for it. It’s an experience; it really is. I can’t tell them what to expect. It’s all about how you go out there and handle it, how you present yourself, how you deal with others.
“But it’s an awesome experience, and I would tell everyone to do it while you’re young.”
AFS-USA, formerly American Field Service, is the organization that works with host families and students in the northeast region of the United States. Host families provide a bed and meals, share their daily lives with students and help guide and support them as they would their own children. AFS volunteers make every effort to match students’ interests to those of host families, whether it’s sports, the arts, academics or other interests.
“Believe it or not, this year we are trying to find a home for Daniel, a Polish/Brazilian boy,” said Carol Huff, AFS volunteer and former host mom. “He is interested in skiing, film and editing videos, building model airplanes, drawing and playing guitar.
“We are also looking for a home for Celine, an Italian girl who is interested in fashion and languages, and two Italian boys who like to read and want to improve their English.”
There is not a “typical” AFS host family. Families can have young or teenage children, be empty-nesters or couples with no children. Single adults also are encouraged to apply. Host families are always needed. More information can be found at http://www.afsusa.org/host-family/our-students/.
For information about how to host a student, contact Carol Huff at 412-848-8095 or Heidi Fadul at hfadul@afsusa.org or 646-381-3358.