Into the Lives of Foreign Exchange Students at LRHS

Every person is the protagonist in their own novel.

Throughout their lives, as pages turn, characters develop, conflicts arise and resolve, and the setting and mood change with the weather.

When relationships are made with friends, we get to skim the pages of someone else’s storey, and maybe even write a line or two.

Enjoying one another’s literature is part of what makes LRHS great, even if time spent reading only lasts a year, like in the case of foreign exchange students.

Each of the four 2014-15 foreign exchange students, Federica Ancora, Hong Hoang, Mark Wilbers and Paul Trippe come from a different background, but they will all share the benefits that studying in a different country and absorbing a new culture will have on their characters.

Federica Ancora’s hometown of Bari, Italy is 5,700 miles from Ritzville. Bari has a population of over 320,000 and is on the eastern coast of Italy. “Bari is bigger than Ritzville,” Ancora said, “but the people here are kinder.”

She began learning English at only six years old.

“I always wanted to come live in America,” she noted. Ancora came to the U.S. with Education First High School Exchange Year (EF) and is staying with Liz Smith and her family.

Hong Hoang came to LRHS from Vienna. The capitol of Austria, Vienna has a whopping 1.8 million people—more than the entire state of Idaho.

Hoang came to the United States through the American Field Service (AFS), and he was encouraged to become a foreign exchange student by teachers and friends, he says.

Hoang continued, “I speak four languages. I’m an Asian from Austria.”

He started learning English in his first year of middle school.

Mark Wilbers, also here with AFS, is from Reid in the Netherlands.

“The community of Ritzville is different because everybody seems to know each other [here],” Wilbers says.

He continued, “I love the amount of food and the intensity of the sports. Everybody is nice to me and everybody is being respectful.”

He said, “I always [had] a dream to go to the U.S. I wanted to do a lot of sports, make new friends, and perfect my English.”

Wilbers is 6-foot-8-inches tall, and plays football for the Broncos along with Hoang. He is staying with the Schafer family.

Paul Trippe is from Oberems, Germany, a town smaller than Ritzville, with only 800 people.

Trippe was encouraged by his grandfather to come to America, and he “wanted to try something new.”

Trippe remarks that his favorite parts about America are “laser tag and paintball, things you can’t do in Germany.” Like Ancora, Trippe came to America through EF. He is currently staying with Melody and Cory Bartlett.

Becoming a foreign exchange student has been proven to greatly influence the lives of students by developing personalities, expanding horizons, and exposing students to different aspects of the world. In a study conducted the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), surveys were distributed to exchange student alumni.

They reported that “studying abroad is usually a defining moment in a young person’s life and continues to impact the participant’s life for years after the experience.”

Whether students gain maturity, confidence or cultural knowledge, studying abroad affects each student in ways that will influence their characters for the remainder of their novels.

All four of this year’s Lind-Ritzville High School foreign exchange students are positive additions to the student body, increasing the school’s diversity and enthusiasm.

Studying abroad is a life changing commitment, one that will make for an interesting chapter of the exchange students’ lives as they continue the 2014-15 school year.