Cultural exchanges for young people are wonderful. They’re fun, and they’re educational. But do they really make a difference?

Ula Solomon thinks so.

Solomon is a senior at Bangor High School who has participated in several facets of CISV — Children’s International Summer Villages, the volunteer organization which was founded four decades ago by Doris Twitchell Allen to promote peace education and cross-cultural friendship.

A “village” for 11-year-olds — the first level of CISV — will operate in the Old Town area this summer. But Solomon’s experiences have taken her to different parts of the world. They are a big reason why she will attend Tufts University in the Boston area this fall to study international relations.

Now 18, Solomon began her CISV experience when she was 13, in the organization’s “Interchange” phase. She went with four other girls and five boys to Florence Italy, where each youngster lived for a month with a separate family.

“We got together quite a bit,” Solomon recalled, but the youngsters still spent most of their time with their host families. Solomon made the trip knowing something about Italy because her parents, Michael and Ingrid Solomon, had once lived in that country for five years.

“Almost everyone knows English pretty well,” Solomon said, but she did have some basic knowledge of Italian. She could say such phrases as “Where’s the bathroom?” “What’s for dinner?” “What does this cost?”

During the time she spent with the other youngsters, they took part in “simulated peace games,” she explained, or they discussed such subjects as religion or economics.

The next year, the second half of the interchange was completed when 10 Italian youngsters came to this country. In Solomon’s case, the young person she had stayed with in Italy stayed with her family.

Last summer, Solomon was a junior counselor in the third level of CISV. She was one of six counselors working with 11 adult leaders and five staff members to look after 44 11-year-olds in a village. The group stayed in a 13th-century castle in Werkoven, Netherlands, that is now a school.

The youngsters came from 11 different countries, and the six counselors were from five countries. “It was a real nice mix,” Solomon said. The language of the camp was English, although many of the children were not fluent in English.

The daily program included arts and crafts, athletics, sometimes a little sightseeing, and activities to foster the CISV philosophy.

“We were trying to get these kids to get this message and the message of Doris Allen — that it’s more than friendship,” Solomon said. It’s “to realize that everybody’s the same,” she said.

Even a craft activity might reinforce that theme, she said. “Kids working with papier-mache, none speaking the same language — it’s just magical watching these kids try to figure out how on earth they’re going to put this thing together. They find a way, nonverbally, to communicate.”

Nonverbal activities were popular, it turned out. There were “lots of water fights,” Solomon said. “The Brazilian kids loved hugging and kissing games.”

At the end of camp, “the kids traded costumes.” Solomon brought home a beautiful red sweater, having swapped an outfit that included a Boston Red Sox hat. She came back to Bangor with pictures and lots of memories, and now she receives several letters a week from children in different countries.

This July, Solomon will take part in the final level of CISV — the seminar camp. She will go to Malmo, Sweden, to spend a month with 34 other students from 17 to 19 and three staff members.

Their time together will be more intense, Solomon expects, offering “much more discussion of political issues, religious issues, economic issues.” She looks forward to “having more time to do what we did in leaders’ meetings … different input, different backgrounds.”

With all of the recent changes in the political climate in Europe, Solomon expects that the young people from more than 25 countries around the world will find plenty to talk about, such as the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany, and the changes in Romania.

Delegations of 11-year-old students from 12 countries — including Romania, Australia and Guatemala — have been invited to attend the second International Summer Village in Old Town this summer. Because participants pay only airfare and international fees, each village must raise money for its own expenses.

Maine’s Fifth International Cafe and Auction, to benefit CISV, will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the Penobscot Job Corps Center, 1375 Union St. The $6 donation will include international desserts and coffee. A wide selection of crafts, services, restaurant dinners and camp weekends will be up for bid. Tickets will be available at the door.

All proceeds will benefit CISV — and the more than 40 11-year-olds who will spend part of their summer in this area, finding the “magic” that Ula Solomon and other young people have found through Children’s International Summer Villages around the world.

For information on the auction or CISV programs, write CISV, P.O. Box 95, Orono 04473.