BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. — It’s not unusual for graduating high school seniors to want to explore the world after graduation.
The American Exchange Project doesn’t send them across the globe, but gives them a unique adventure across the country.
Channel 2’s Lori Wilson learned that recently graduated seniors spend a week discovering a new American town and a second week rediscovering their own.
But their destinations are not up to them.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“Yeah, I just want to get out. I want to see something different...I want new perspectives,” Tristan Wenting said.
Wenting is one of more than 700 graduating seniors who will be traveling this summer. He’s from Lawrence, Kansas and will spend a week in July exploring Waddell, Arizona.
In more than 80 communities, students will be traveling with about a dozen others to experience another culture and corner of the U.S.
“This is gonna be way different than Lawrence,” he said.
After her senior year, college sophomore Jessica Ojei traveled from Maryland to Alaska.
TRENDING STORIES:
- 3 metro Atlanta teens killed, another injured in Spring Break crash
- Blood tests show hundreds of Georgians charged with DUI were sober
- FEMA official says he teleported to a Waffle House in North Georgia
“Domestic exchange, in my opinion, is just as valuable as an international exchange,” she said.
She said she got involved after her father, who grew up in Ghana, participated in a similar program in Michigan when he was growing up.
“I had to pinch myself. I’m like, ‘There’s no way this is real, like, I’m hiking up a glacier right now with these people that I just met,’” she said.
Ojei said that the perspective she gained from the program will stay with her for a lifetime.
Jackson High School in Butts County is currently the only school in Georgia listed as participating in the program.
All expenses are covered for the students chosen.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
