Just about every year, Woodmore High School has had at least one foreign exchange student. This year there are four exchange students.

One student, from Finland, is Charlotta Makinen. She is staying with Whitney Flick, high school English teacher. She has been here since Aug. 3 and will be staying until summer.

Flick enjoys having an exchange student because she loves meeting new people and getting to learn about other cultures. Makinen’s life is a lot different here from her life back home. She sees her host family a lot more than her family in Finland because they are always working. The schools are a lot different too.

Woodmore international students Sven Roediger, Aylin Sorkum, Charlotta Makinen and Lindsay Nelfise hold maps to show where they are from. (Photo by Cassondra Requena)

“The schools are a lot stricter here,” she said. “They are also smaller and cozier.”

In her free time, she likes to be with her friends and dance. Makinen is really looking forward to the dances and senior trip.

Sven Roediger is a junior from Dresden, Germany. So far, he likes how friendly the people are in America and enjoys going to Woodmore sporting events. He also said he likes the small school atmosphere.

“My schedule in Germany changes every week, and I have 15 courses a week. Also, we have shorter breaks,” Sven said.

He says he has wanted to come to America for a long time and hopes to do many things while here.

“I want to play for the basketball team and go to the dances that the school has.”

Roediger’s host family, the Zatkos, have enjoyed having Sven become part of their family.

“We’ve learned a lot about the German culture, such as eating meals together, which is what they do in Germany, and we really like having him live with us,” said John Zatko.

One of his teachers, Wendell Markley, feels that Roediger is doing well so far at Woodmore.

“Sven seems to understand everything and is blending in with his class of six girls,” Markley said.

Aylin Sorkum is from Hamburg, Germany and is excited to learn about Woodmore. She came here on Aug. 25 to learn English and see America. She said school is a lot different in Hamdurg than it is at Woodmore. There students have three long periods at school compared to our eight-period day. Sorkum’s school is larger than Woodmore and holds of over 1,000 students, who don’t have lockers.

Sorkum is staying with the Allgeier family. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, hanging out with friends, spending time outdoors and playing basketball.

“I like it here because the periods are not as long and it’s a lot warmer here than in Hamdurg,” said Sorkum.

Another new face is Lindsay Nelfise. She is a foreign exchange student for Guadeloupe, an island that belongs to France. She is living with the Netcher family.

“She is very nice and has taught me a lot about her school, family and friends,” said senior Seth Netcher.

Going to Woodmore is very different compared to her school in Guadeloupe.

“We can’t choose our classes and the teachers move to different classrooms instead of the students,” said Nelfise.

They also have a two-hour lunch break where they are allowed to leave school. She was on the dance team in Guadeloupe. Nelfise has been enjoying her time in the United States.

“My favorite thing about America is the shopping,” she said.

Everything isn’t perfect in America though.

“I miss the weather in Guadeloupe. It’s cold here,” she said.

Eastwood international students
At Eastwood High School, there are 10 international students, and three of them were profiled in the October edition of the school newspaper, the Eagle’s Eye. The other seven will be in upcoming editions.

Camilla Goschin, 16, left Berlin, Germany this summer and arrived in a completely new culture at Eastwood.

Her school has around 1,000 students, but the bigger difference is in the classes. Like several other exchange students, Goschin’s classes in Germany are different every day, much the same as college schedules here. Her school is also much larger and housed the fifth through 12th grade students.

Many students in Germany participate in the same activities as Americans, but their sports are school-related. Here, Goschin is involved in the fall play, dance team, and International Club.

According to Goschin, her favorite part of being here is the people. She describes Americans as friendly and caring, even if they don’t know people well.

Olga Borodko, 15, agrees that people here are very polite. Coming from a city in Ukraine, she was surprised by Americans driving everywhere instead of walking.

Another change was the noise level. Being in a rural setting, Luckey is much quieter. Borodko’s school is also larger than Eastwood and uses a rotating class schedule. She says the hardest tyhing to get used to is having the same classes every day.

Like so many other Eastwood students, Borodko is already involved in school activities. In the fall play, Borodko was cast as one of the fairies.

In Ukraine, students participate in many of the same activities. After school they have sports clubs, leadership clubs and other groups.

Diyae El Hassouni, 17, is also involved in many activities here. Soccer, dance team, International Club, Art Club, and Key Club leaves her no time to be bored, which she says is one of the best things about America. Her other favorite part of America is that the people are so friendly.

Many other things differ between her home country of Morocco and here. They have only two clubs, no school bus, no after-school sports, and a rotating class schedule. During the day, time is built into the schedule for sports. After school, teenagers hang out at friends’ houses or at restaurants.

In Morroco, El Hassouni speaks Arabic and French. They also have to wait until they are 18 years old to drive. She says Americans are lucky to learn to drive at 16. Another new part of American for El Hassouni are the stores; her favorites are Hollister and American Eagle.

One thing that stays same throughout the world is that students think school starts too early. For El Hassouni, the 7:45 a.m. start at Eastwood was hard to get used to. Her school sometimes starts as late as 9 a.m.

(Maggie Selzer is the editor of The Eagle’s Eye. Seniors Chelsea Webb, John Makulinski, and Cody Lockhart and junior Dylan Young write for Woodmore to Window, the Woodmore student newspaper. Their stories are reprinted here with permission from journalism advisors).

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed