Foreign exchange students find themselves at home in Rexburg – East Idaho News

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.

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.”

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.

“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).

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.

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.

For extra info on internet hosting a scholar, contact Barney at 208-881-4341 or tracybarney68@gmail.com.