REXBURG — A rodeo cowgirl. A soccer participant. A feminine wrestler. A theater tech. A woodworker. A volleyball participant. Their pursuits are large and various, however one factor they’ve in frequent is that every of those excessive schoolers took an opportunity on dwelling within the U.S. for a 12 months.
They got here from all around the globe, together with from Bolivia, Italy, Spain and Germany, to participate in an alternate scholar program supplied by SHARE! Excessive College Trade Program.
The youngsters had been strangers to their host households once they arrived within the States lower than a 12 months in the past, however at this time lots of them really feel like a part of the household — and the sensation is mutual.
Chrissi Goeppel, 16, got here to the U.S. from her hometown of about 85 individuals in Kaudorf, Germany. Goeppel hopped off the airplane and onto a horse, starting her 10-month rodeo profession on day one in every of her keep together with her host household.
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“Her airplane got here in whereas I used to be on the rodeo with my daughter,” says Goeppel’s host mom, Dee Dee Tucker of Rexburg. “I simply advised her she was entered.”
Goeppel took to the rodeo proper from the beginning and has loved competing all through her keep. She even competed in a rodeo queen competitors, incomes herself her very personal belt buckle on the Whoopee Days Rodeo in Rexburg in July.
Her curiosity in rural life doesn’t cease at rodeo. Goeppel speaks enthusiastically of her time at Madison Excessive College, and particularly the relationships she constructed with college students and academics within the agriculture division, saying she spends all her time “within the ag constructing.”
“I like it on the market,” she says. “I like the academics.”
Goeppel, who was already an skilled horse rider earlier than coming to Rexburg, discovered a terrific match with the Tuckers, her host household. She’s develop into such part of the household that nobody is phased when she speaks of her host household’s family as her personal. Cousins, Grandma and Grandpa, aunts and uncles — they’re all hers now.
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“I don’t know the way I’m gonna stay with out Addie (her host sister) and also you guys and the rodeo,” Goeppel says to Tucker as she prepares to return to Germany.
Miguel Angel Achá Boiano is a 17-year-old soccer participant from Bolivia. He determined to return to the U.S. to enhance his English. He hopes the talent will assist him in his future skilled pursuits. Proper now, he thinks he’d prefer to be a programmer or some type of engineer.
Boiano says he didn’t have many expectations about dwelling within the U.S., but it surely was an enormous change coming from a metropolis with hundreds of thousands of individuals to small-town Idaho.
His host mom, Deidra Smith of Rexburg, says this was the primary time the household had hosted an alternate scholar. They thought of it first as a result of her oldest child requested if they might do it.
“We learn (Boiano’s) profile, and it simply felt proper,” Smith stated. “And he has been an superior child. Miguel is so accountable and useful.”
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Smith says her household is a “soccer household,” and that having Boiano of their house for the college 12 months has been a terrific expertise for the entire household.
“I believe he has bonded with all the children in numerous methods,” Smith says.
One other perk of getting an alternate scholar, based on Smith, is the publicity to a different tradition with out the effort of leaving house.
“You get to journey with out leaving the consolation of your personal house,” Smith says.
“The one rule that I had when coming right here was, by no means say no to a brand new expertise.”
Valentina Susanni, 17, from Milan, Italy, needed to return to america to have the American highschool expertise, and she or he jumped in with each ft. She ran cross nation and observe and was one in every of a handful of ladies on the Madison Excessive College wrestling group.
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Her host mom, Becky Greene of Rexburg, says this was her third time internet hosting an alternate scholar. The Greenes had beforehand hosted Italians twice and had been contemplating inviting somebody from one other nation this time.
“However we noticed Valentina’s (profile), and each particular person within the household was like, ‘That’s the one,’” Greene stated.
In Greene’s expertise, alternate college students are desperate to be concerned of their faculties and communities.
“Each, they contain themselves,” Greene says. “They bounce in they usually’re outgoing. They actually put themselves in with out holdbacks.”
Susanni matches that description to a T. She says, “The one rule that I had when coming right here was, by no means say no to a brand new expertise.”
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Adriana Fernandez, 15, of Madrid, needed to seek out out if the issues she’d realized about life in America had been true.
“I simply needed to see if it was really like the flicks,” she says.
However not all the pieces was like the flicks.
“Nobody makes use of their lockers and individuals are nicer,” Fernandez says.
Host mother Hydee Graybill of Rexburg says one of the best elements of getting Fernandez in her house for the final 12 months had been the friendships made together with her youngsters and experiencing issues in a brand new means.
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“It was enjoyable to see and expertise issues by way of her eyes,” Graybill says. “It was enjoyable to get to know her tradition.”
Leonardo Ferroni, 17, of Pisa, Italy, says the expansion in his English abilities will assist him get a great job when he returns house.
“I stay in a metropolis that’s based mostly in tourism,” he says. “My information of English has actually improved, so I can simply discover a job close to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
As a result of he didn’t know English very properly when he arrived, Ferroni was hesitant to leap into social conditions at first and he swore he’d by no means attend a college dance. However as quickly as he began to really feel extra comfy talking and making pals, “he purchased a swimsuit and he’s been to a few (dances),” says his host mother, Emi Flamm.
Ferroni says he has liked the variations he has present in his American college in comparison with his Italian college. He loves gaining access to a health club in school and the “variety of courses.” Whereas attending Madison Excessive College, he has taken courses in meals and vitamin, images, energy coaching, Excel, and woodworking (the place he made his host household a fantastic picket checkerboard).
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Like different alternate college students, he has even chosen to take Latter-day Saint seminary courses, despite the fact that he’s not a member of the church.
Leonardo Ferroni says among the best elements about dwelling with the Flamm household for the previous 12 months was vacationing in Hawaii. | Courtesy photograph
Ferroni says he has loved taking part together with his host household of their vacation traditions and going alongside on household adventures — particularly to Hawaii.
“They introduced me to Hawaii!” he says. “It was actual, and it was superb.”
When requested if he deliberate to return to Rexburg sometime, Ferroni responds with an enthusiastic “Sure!” and a fistbump to his host brother Jarum.
SHARE! Coordinator Tracy Barney says she loves observing how the alternate college students develop into like household throughout their 10-month keep. She’s engaged on matching up host households and alternate college students for the approaching 2022-2023 college 12 months.
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For extra info on internet hosting a scholar, contact Barney at 208-881-4341 or tracybarney68@gmail.com.
BOISE— Several changes are coming to the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on July 1 as new legislation takes effect. These changes will improve customer service and offer more options to Idahoans.
Driver’s License and ID Cards
Customers who are eligible to renew their driver’s license online will get a $5 discount for completing the transaction online.
The requirements for getting a free identification card (ID) for voting have been reduced. Legislation has removed the rule that applicants must not have had a valid driver’s license for 6 months before applying for the free ID.
Commercial Drivers and Vehicles
Commercial drivers will now be able to get a commercial driver’s license (CDL) for eight years. The previous limit for CDLs was four years. CDLs will also be checked against the National Drug and Alcohol Clearing House.
DMV will now issue two-year weighted registrations for commercial and non-commercial vehicles up to 60,000 lbs. The previous limit was one year.
License Plates
Idaho will offer a Space Force Plate to eligible customers.
All Purple Heart recipients will be able to get a Purple Heart plate for free. Previously the fee exemption only applied to disabled Purple Heart recipients.
Legislation also created a Gadsden Flag “Don’t Tread on Me” plate. Plate sales will help fund educational grants for firearms safety training. While the legislation goes into effect on July 1, per the timeline included in the law, plates will be made available by January 1, 2025.
Driver’s Education
Parents in rural school districts or districts without driver’s education programs will be able to teach the on-the-road portion of driver’s ed. Parents must keep a log of drive time and skills learned. Students will complete the classroom driver’s ed course through the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (IDLA). More information is available from the Idaho Department of Education.
Other
The definition of “resident” to get a vehicle registration, title, license, or identification card has been changed from 90 days to 30 days. This does not change the definition of resident for voting purposes.
If an owner wants to sell a vehicle that has no active registration, they can get up to two 30-day temporary registrations for the purpose of selling the vehicle.
Great news for travelers who work and play in the Teton Valley. After a massive rockslide closed Highway 22 over Teton Pass three weeks ago, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has reopened the pass.
RELATED | Teton Pass reopens with interim detour after major road collapse
I asked Stephanie Harsha from W-DOT what their geologists are saying about the cause of the slide. “It was what our geologists called a perfect storm, so the weather is a big factor with the warming temperatures, and they warm up 20 degrees and with it not cooling off at night the ground just saturated it.”
It was not only important to get the pass open for the busy Fourth of July weekend, but also for the commuters from Victor and Driggs Idaho to get work in Jackson. “It was a big impact to their daily lives I heard people saying it was costing hundreds of dollars a week because of the detour.”
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Harsha mentioned they received a lot of help from I.T.D. in getting the popular pass open.
“Together with our stakeholders, partners, contractors, and community advocates, we were able to accomplish this major feat in a matter of weeks – despite expectations that it would take months, or even years – all while keeping safety paramount,” said John Eddins, WYDOT District 3 Engineer. “Of course, we have so many to thank for this achievement.”
WASHINGTON (BP) – In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) sent the case of Idaho and Moyle v. U.S. back to the Ninth Circuit Court in a ruling released, June 27. The case involves a conflict between state law and the Biden Administration’s use of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
“At the heart of the case is the wild assertion by the Biden Administration that abortion is healthcare. Instead of dismantling that argument and protecting lives, the Court punted,” said Brent Leatherwood, Ethics & Religious Liberty (ERLC) president.
“We agree with Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch that any perceived conflict here is the result of the federal government’s novel approach to EMTALA. These justices would have moved forward with ruling on the merits of the case––and the Court should have done so,” he said.
The “unsigned order from the justices leaves in place an order by a federal judge in Idaho that temporarily blocks the state from enforcing its abortion ban, which carves out exceptions only to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest, to the extent that it conflicts with a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. That 1986 law requires emergency rooms in hospitals that receive Medicare to provide ‘necessary stabilizing treatment” to patients who arrive with an “emergency medical condition,’” according to Amy Howe at scotusblog.com.
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Leatherwood said the ERLC will continue to work to support the state law in the case.
According to the ERLC, “While Idaho’s law is allowed to remain in effect in the meantime, it is limited by a decision from the lower court permitting abortion when the health of the woman is deemed at serious risk, and continuing litigation will resolve a lack of clarity on what that terminology means.”
Leatherwood called the Biden Administration action a means to “radically reinterpret laws meant to save lives.”
Lawyers for the Biden Administration argued the law caused confusion between the state’s law prohibiting abortion and the federal regulation mandating physicians perform an abortion in a case when the mother’s health is deemed to be at emergency risk.
“I am disappointed that SCOTUS has not rejected the Biden administration’s blatant attempt to hijack a law that protects mothers and babies. Throughout my 30-year career, EMTALA has never confused me or my obstetric peers when providing emergency care, especially considering 90% of obstetricians do not perform elective abortions,” said Ingrid Skop, an OB-GYN who also serves as the vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
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Pro-life advocates believe some women are manipulating the federal policy to receive an abortion in Idaho despite the state law.
“I have always – before Dobbs, and since– been able and willing to intervene if a pregnancy complication threatened my patient’s life, and every state pro-life law allows us to act. Forcing doctors to end an unborn patient’s life by abortion in the absence of a threat to his mother’s life is coercive, needless and goes against our oath to do no harm,” she said.
According to the ERLC, “The case will return to the Ninth Circuit with the injunction from the lower court once more in effect, where the court will hear the case on the merits and proceed, essentially, as if the Supreme Court had never taken up the case. This case or other litigation raising these underlying questions will likely return to the Supreme Court in coming terms.”
