'Summer Work, Travel' Brings Many Students to US (1/2)

This week, we answer a question from a student in Odessa, Ukraine. Marushka wants to know about a program that lets foreign students work in the United States during their summer vacations.The program is called Summer Work/Travel. The State Department administers it for full-time college or university students who speak English well.

Students come on a J-one exchange visa. They can work for up to four months during their school break. They generally work in service jobs in stores, resorts, hotels, restaurants and amusement parks. But summer internships are also permitted.

"Summer" in this case means summer in the student's country. Those from south of the equator come to the United States during the northern winter.Students cannot work as housekeepers in private homes or be involved in patient care. And they are supposed to be paid the same as Americans.

Congress created this popular program under a nineteen sixty-one law, the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act. Last year, one hundred fifty thousand students came to the United States this way. Students can do the Summer Work/Travel program more than once.