Owatonna High School has foreign exchange students every school year. During the 2023-2024 school year, there have been seven foreign exchange students who have joined the school system. Foreign exchange students can come from all over the world. It is difficult to leave one’s family behind especially if they are all one has ever known. It can be scary and difficult to have that transition from one’s home country to an unfamiliar place where they do not know the social norms or the language that well.
Students shared common answers of missing their families, friends, and the food they have back home. Nominjin Purevdavaa is a junior from Mongolia. Purevdavaa said, “The media influenced me a lot. The American dream being portrayed in social media made me want to experience being a teenager here.” Purevdavaa explains how there are some pretty big differences between her country and America.
Lifestyles were also a very obvious difference as well. In Mongolia, it is common for people to live with their parents when they are older but in America, people typically move out when they are 18. Another thing is teenagers working at a young age. While in Mongolia, students typically do not work and focus on their studying. Some other differences Purevdavaa noticed that people drink cold drinks during the winter. Another is wearing shoes inside the house.
Another thing students missed was having the ability to walk all over town. Someone who expressed this a lot was Junior Laura Benito Martos, a student from Spain. She said, “It’s different here because someone always has to drive me around and I miss my ability to walk from place to place or even to take public transportation all over my city.”
At Martos’s old school, there was not a wide variety of subjects to choose from. She said that they did not eat lunch at school and thought it was cool that everyone would sit together and eat in the building. In Spain, most teachers require you to greet them in the morning and if you don’t, you’ll be sent back out into the hallway to walk in again to say your greeting. Martos also mentioned how politics are a big thing in her country. They are talked about everywhere even in a classroom setting.
Matilde Brentegani, a junior at OHS, expresses that coming to America was always a big dream for her. She said, “There was a possibility to become a whole new girl and I thought it would be a cool way to live out my dream.” Originally from Italy, Brentegani said she liked the small-town vibes of Owatonna. One difference she noticed between here and her own country was that people were not as open-minded as they were in Italy. Brentegani also said that there were not many school activities to participate in back in Italy, but now she is a member of the dance team and attends practices often. She was most shocked about the sizes in America and claimed that everything is bigger here than where she is from.
The most common answer shared amongst the interviewees was that they wanted to learn English. Barbara Viret, another junior from OHS, is from France. She thought coming to America would be the easiest way to learn English since she would be surrounded by people who spoke English all the time. Just like the others, Viert noticed that there were some obvious differences.
Viert said, “We don’t do the pledge of allegiance every week, we only do it at things like sports games.” She also mentioned that schooling is shorter classes/day and easier here compared to France. Some things that are normal for her are eating bread for every meal which is not as common here.
Having foreign exchange students from all over the world promotes diversity and welcomes differences in cultures. Differences can bring people together and help them learn more about each other. This can also teach one a little bit more about other countries what is normal for them and what might not be considered here. It is an amazing thing that everyone can just coexist on the same planet and live extremely different lifestyles.
Junior Kelli Waypa’s family is hosting junior Gaia D’Angelo who is from Italy. D’Angelo is set to stay with the Waypas for the whole school year. The process of housing can be different for each student. Some stay half the year and some stay the whole year. Waypa said “It’s cool to learn about the differences in cultures and it’s fun to invite someone to different things because she’s like a sister to me.” Waypa also says the differences in background and experiences also teach her a lot about D’Angelo.
Some of the rules and guidelines for being a student from another country trying to come to Owatonna High School are being 16, A SLEP test (an English proficiency test), and the case must be accepted. In the previous years OHS didn’t limit the amount of foreign exchange students but for the 2024-2025 school year and the years to come the limit will be a total of five students. If the process of traveling to study abroad is interesting, connecting with one’s counselor and talking to them about it is always available.
