Program Marks a Decade of Foreign Exchange.

(From The Moscow Times)

When Karina Chupina returned to St. Petersburg after a year studying in an American high school, she decided to change the lives of disabled people in her native city.

Today, Chupina is vice president and project coordinator at the International Federation for Young People with Hearing Deficiencies, an organization that helps disabled people integrate into mainstream society.

Chupina is a graduate of the U.S. government-funded Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX, program for secondary school students. The organization places students of the former Soviet Union in American high schools and with American host families. They study for a school year before returning …