Students from Idaho, California, Tennessee, New York and Texas walk around Waverly on a summer morning, learning about the region’s history. The recent high school graduates spent a week staying with host families as part of the American Exchange Project (AEP).
Destination Freedom: The Underground Railroad Tour, led by EJ Murphy at the Waverly Community House, teaches about the local path enslaved African Americans used to escape in search of freedom.
“You had a lot of New Englanders coming to this area and claiming land,” Murphy said. “This is what brings a lot of that anti-slavery sentiment to Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
Towards the end of the tour, as they were walking, one student asked another, “Was the Three-Fifths Compromise only for the South?”
Jerry Skotleski, a Scranton law and government teacher who worked to bring the program to the area, is amazed at the way students opened up to each other.
“We had a massive religious discussion in the car out of nowhere,” he said. “Last year, the girls in the car said, ‘Mr. Skot, can I use your radio?’ So they logged their phone into my radio, and they literally had a rap battle in my car listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.”
AEP in Scranton
The group experienced the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour, the Steamtown National Historic Site, Lahey Family Fun Park and more in their seven-day adventure.
Ava Burris, from Kingsport, Tennessee, said her favorite part of the trip is “it’s all free.”
AEP is “stitching our country together; one student, one high school, one hometown at a time,” according to its website.
Skotleski was contacted by one of the founders of the nonprofit to form a Scranton connection in 2022. He recruited three students that year.
“The following year, I sent five students out and brought six students to Scranton,” he said. “Then this year, we sent out eight students and we brought in eight students.”
Skotleski and Michael Frounfelker are exchange managers. Their job is to make an itinerary of local events and attractions and safely get the students around.
“The donations have come in because of the experiences these kids are having,” Skotleski said. “It is the beginning of a spider web of kids connecting to each other. And that spider web is growing and slowly connecting across the country.”
He's thankful for local organizations including the Lackawanna County Historical Society and the Electric City Trolley Museum for donating or offering discounts for the group.
Student Experiences
“Everyday has totally been packed,” exchange student Leela Hensler said. “We’ve done a ton of stuff that you’d never be able to do in California.”
Hensler is from Berkeley, California, and she’ll soon move to New Jersey to attend Princeton University.
“We also went to Nay Aug Park which is way bigger than any public park we have where I live,” she added.
In addition to the environmental and historical differences, the students picked up on cultural tidbits from spending time with their host families.
“A lot of people here have a lot of pride in being Irish or Polish or Lithuanian,” Hensler said. “Where I am from … people don’t really go around saying, ‘My family came from Ireland 100 years ago.’ I don’t have a lot of friends who have that background.”
Steven Maldonado just returned from his trip to Denver, Colorado with AEP.
“There were no bad days,” he said. “We went camping … We saw a moose, too. And on the Fourth of July we went to an MLB game, the Colorado Rockies. That was fun.”
When asked to describe his host family, he said “perfect.”
“They’re amazing,” Burris said of her host parents. “We get bagels every morning.”
The students also enjoyed eating local food and meeting the owner of Chef Von & Mom, who recently competed on FOX’s "Next Level Chef."
