With COVID-19 coming to an end, it has opened up more opportunities for people across the world. One of those opportunities is a new influx of foreign students being able to participate in exchange programs all across the U.S.

Foreign exchange programs provide students the opportunity to study in a different environment than they’re used to. This means we can have students from all across the world come and study with us. I was able to interview some of the foreign exchange girls that have transferred to Frederick High school and they gave me insight into how their experience at Frederick has been so far. 

When I asked one of the foreign exchange students, Leonie Koestler, who is from Germany, why she wanted to do a foreign exchange program she said, “Well, my mom was a foreign exchange student when she was young. She always tells me how cool it was and how much she loved it. I also have lots of other friends who are doing an exchange program who love it too.” 

One of the things Leonie wanted to do here was go to her first American football game and that happened to be the whiteout game Against Holy Family. She explained to me how they don’t have anything like that at her previous school. She loved it and thought it was super entertaining. 

Leonie doesn’t particularly like how long our school days are here in America. She would like to have shorter school days, so she could have more free time to explore the city and familiarize herself more with Colorado.

The next student I was able to talk to was Kohagi Noguchi, who is from Japan. Like Leonie, she also loved the football game and enjoyed being in the student section and cheering on her team. 

Kohagi said, “The reason why I came here is that I want to be independent through the study abroad program,” Kohagi stated when asked about why she wanted to be in an exchange program.

She has been in the U.S. for about a month and has enjoyed how friendly the people are and being on our school’s volleyball team. She says she found it a bit weird to see nobody wearing face masks because back in Japan it was the complete opposite. Nevertheless, Kohagi is very excited to be going to Frederick and continuing her journey as an exchange student. 

For my last interview, I talked to Justine Viginier, who is from France. When asked about the cultural differences between America, specifically Colorado and France she answered, “The shops are huge, and the cars are huge too, and people are very, very friendly.” 

For Justine, It has been her dream since she was two, to come to America. Justine also wants to improve at speaking English, and she hopes she can accomplish that by being a student here at Frederick. Like most of us, Justine loves Wendy’s and so far has really relished her time here. 

By having international students here at Frederick, we can create new friendships and understand each other’s different perspectives. It has been really great learning from these three and their perspectives on our high school and America in general. They’re all looking forward to their year here at Frederick as juniors!