Cameron Chisholm turned 18 somewhere over the Atlantic. He landed in Slovakia on his birthday, in August 1998, a teenager from West Texas arriving in a country still finding its footing after the fall of communism.
“Life moved at a slower pace,” he remembers. “People bought fresh bread every morning, stores closed on weekends, and neighbors knew one another.” He was often the first American many of them had ever met. Soon, Cameron became an object of endless, friendly curiosity about life in Texas.
Not every part of the exchange came easily. Cameron’s first host family placement did not work out, and switching families was difficult. Looking back, he counts it as one of the most important parts of the year. “It taught me resilience, adaptability, and empathy.” The health, safety and well-being of exchange students is the number one priority for AFS. AFS volunteers and staff are committed and trained to support students and their families throughout the AFS experience.
What followed was a second host family he still thinks about today. His host mother was funny, full of life, and devoted to Cher, the American performer. “She did not speak any English, but she absolutely loved Cher,” Cameron says. “I still remember her dancing around the apartment singing ‘Believe’ in her Slovak accent after it was released. We could not always communicate with words, but somehow we understood each other perfectly.”
His host brother, Stano, had just returned from his own AFS exchange in Germany. Stano spoke three languages, had a love of geology, and a habit of dragging Cameron up into the mountains around Prievidza. “Those conversations and quiet walks taught me just as much as the classroom ever did.”
One memory from his exchange that stands out from the rest is the day Cameron cooked Thanksgiving dinner for his host family, spending an entire day tracking down ingredients and making everything from scratch. His host mother loved bread pudding so much that she had him write out the recipe, translated it into Slovak, and shared it with all her colleagues. She called it “chlieb pudin.”
By the end of his six months, Cameron was speaking only Slovak. “Somewhere along the way, we had stopped being a host family and an exchange student. We had simply become family.”
From Prievidza, Slovakia to worldwide peacebuilding
Camerion’s intercultural exchange set the direction of the rest of his professional life. While still abroad, he decided he wanted to build a career in international relations, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. Thus, he applied to Emory University from Slovakia because of its connection to President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center. That decision opened a path he has now followed for more than two decades, working with young leaders, educators, civil society organizations, and governments across dozens of countries.
Today, Cameron leads Soliya, a wholly owned subsidiary of AFS, and a dialogue organization through which more than 75,000 young people from over 60 countries have taken part in sustained cross-cultural conversation. “In many ways, leading Soliya as part of the AFS family feels less like a new chapter and more like coming home,” he says. “What I am most proud of is not a particular title or project. It is knowing that somewhere, someone is seeing another person differently because of a conversation or experience that I helped make possible.”
Reconnecting with the AFS community through his work at Soliya, he says, has reminded him how much those relationships mattered, and inspired him to reach out more intentionally to his host family. He has returned to Slovakia once since his exchange, and hopes to go back again soon.
Through its Connect Program and Global Circles, Soliya partners with universities and youth organizations around the world to give students a space to talk honestly across differences on identity, conflict, and global issues, building the empathy and communication skills to lead in an interconnected world. Learn more at soliya.net.