Teodora Wjacic starts work as a barista at Ocean City’s All Friends Coffee Shop at 7 a.m., switches to an afternoon job at Old Time Photos on the boardwalk, then finishes her night as a server at Shenanigans after 11 p.m. before heading home to a room shared with four other women.

Wjacic, 22, is one of Ocean City’s 3,678 foreign exchange visitors, cleaning hotel rooms and clearing tables, ringing up T-shirts at Sunsations, working the kitchen at The Hobbit and thrilling the crowds at Jolly Roger. She found out about the program, called BridgeUSA, through friends who had a good experience.

It was hard work, Wjacic said, but she met people from all over the world.

“It’s an experience that will stay with me forever,” she wrote via text. “It taught me how much I can grow when I step outside my comfort zone.”

Ocean City is the most popular destination for the U.S. State Department program, which aims to foster cultural diplomacy by offering foreign university students, ages 18 to 28, a chance to spend four months working and traveling in the U.S. on a J-1 visa.

The J-1 workforce is crucial to Ocean City’s economy. With a local population of 6,884 and 12,000 seasonal jobs each year, nearly every one of Ocean City’s hundreds of businesses employs J-1 students, said Keith Whisenant, secretary and treasurer for the OCMD Hospitality Association.

“It would be difficult to have a full staff without them,” Whisenant said. “They are so willing to go above and beyond for everyone around them.”

But the students also work long hours, often live in tight dormitories, and turn to meal programs to afford food. They face a different experience than what they had expected back home. While being part of a community helps students manage their time here, many agree improvements are needed.

With the exception of the pandemic’s onset in 2020, J-1 students have come back every summer since the program began in the 60s.

Many are from Romania or other parts of Eastern Europe. Students are recruited by companies in their hometowns and connected with sponsors, for-profit organizations that coordinate a student’s time in Ocean City, including visas, employment, housing, transportation and travel insurance.

Students pay sponsors at least $3,500. Many students take out a loan to cover that cost, the round-trip flight, and their first month of rent.

A summer working in Ocean City has unique challenges, as students with limited English proficiency learn how to navigate the health care system, rent and security deposits, getting a Social Security number and international banking.

“Every part of life is made harder for them,” said Debbie Morlock, a volunteer with the I-55 Partnership, an organization founded to help J-1 student workers and offer social activities.

“It’s as if they were our child. We love and care for them in the same way,” Morlock said.

Morlock also volunteers with Son Spot Ministries’ free meal program, one of several run by churches across Ocean City from Memorial to Labor Day that help J-1 students.

Călin Voicu first came to Ocean City on a J-1 visa in 2005 and returns every summer to manage All Friends, an organization inspired by the 90s TV sitcom that acts as a “home away from home” for J-1 visitors.

His first summer, Voicu said, he arrived at 2 a.m. with 29 other Romanians. They used a payphone to call a landlord they’d wired $6,000 as a deposit.

“Everyone wondered is this guy even real?” Voicu said. “And then he answered!”

Voicu said his experience was mostly positive. Organizations like All Friends and city and business leaders have continued to improve students’ experience, he said.

Now, through All Friends, many J-1s are able to travel to New York City, the West Coast and the Weeknd’s July concert in Philadelphia for fun.

In early 2000, the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce began hosting annual summer welcome events and a spring conference for employers, visa sponsors, and locals.

“Can we treat them like we’d treat a kid from our own neighborhood? Because for this summer, that’s precisely what they are, and we wouldn’t want to see anyone’s kid fall into harm’s way,” Amy Thompson, the Chamber’s director, said at the annual conference.

Jason D’Amore, human resources manager at bayfront restaurant Fish Tales, says attending every year helps him understand the challenges facing his J-1 employees, though he doesn’t think enough employers participate.

But for J-1 students, meeting basic needs can still be a major obstacle.

One Romanian student, who did not want to use her name because of concerns about her employment and visa status, missed the chamber’s sessions because of the timing of her program.

It’s also hard for J-1 students to get Social Security numbers to open bank accounts. Appointments at the Social Security office across the bay in Salisbury fill up months in advance. Only three banks serve J-1 students. The Romanian student couldn’t cash her paychecks to pay her rent and send money to Romania to pay her loan for two months.

“I couldn’t buy food,” she said. “I felt bad having to eat the rice and pasta bought by my roommates.”

Back in Romania, the student’s visa specified a front desk attendant job. But instead her job was as a housekeeper — carrying cleaning supplies on her back up and down stairs for $12.12 an hour after tax and tips. She didn’t call her sponsor because she didn’t think they could help.

Tania Biro, a student studying the economics of tourism in Romania, shares a bathroom with nine other girls in a beachfront condo, with a microwave and fridge in place of a kitchen. She’s given up on finding a new place but after months of searching found a second job to help pay her loan for the J-1 program. Biro said she never received much information from her sponsor about what to expect in Ocean City, let alone information about resources.

Keith Stone is vice president of participant support, operations and compliance for CIEE, the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit study abroad organization. Stone said in an email that they share resources online and have a 24-7 support line for J-1 visa workers.

But some J-1 students said they worry that raising issues with their their sponsor will put their visa and employment at risk.

The U.S. State Department requires sponsors to report serious incidents and also surveys J-1 students about their experiences. Last year, they received 794 complaints, ranging from issues with mental and physical health to crimes and sexual misconduct.

Radomir Jankovic, who is from Serbia, works for United Work and Travel, one of two sponsors — out of 18 total — with offices in Ocean City. Jankovic is responsible for almost 900 students, often meeting with them first in Eastern Europe and then greeting them in Ocean City. More students sponsored by other organizations are coming to his desk every year asking for his help.

“I get so stressed. I don’t know how they do it,” Jankovic said.

John Maronick, a local attorney who offers low-cost legal services to J-1 students, said a majority of students never get their security deposits returned.

And because students are unaccustomed to Ocean City traffic, cases of students getting hit by cars, trucks or injured while using scooters, biking or walking have increased.

They can rack up hundreds of dollars in emergency room expenses for injuries and sickness.

Despite the challenges, J-1 student said they would return to Ocean City. Vesi, a 25-year old from Bulgaria, is nearing the end of her third year in Ocean City “working nonstop” in three hospitality jobs.

“You don’t know if you’ll ever see them again ever,” she said about the people she’s met in Ocean City. “But it’s the feeling you leave in a person that stays with you forever.”