The Clarkston High School exchange students arrived at the beginning of the school year and are set to leave at the end of the school year. The students reminisced on their time in America and how it shaped them as people. Photo by Megan Kelley.

By Megan Kelley
Clarkston News Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — As spring begins there is a familiar air among students at Clarkston High School – summer is on the horizon and soon, they will be out of school for several months. While most students look forward to this time of year, that can’t necessarily be said for everyone including the school’s foreign exchange students who are spending their final months in the United States.
The district’s exchange program is run by high school teacher and International Exchange Student Coordinator Christina Verkest.
“There are definitely benefits from having the culture and having students from a wide variety of places,” Verkest said.
This year, Verkest has 11 exchange students from all across the world including France, Japan, Germany, Spain, Thailand, Columbia, Brazil and Italy.
Most of them are just 17-years-old and it is their first time not just in America but experiencing it like a normal American high school student would, by joining teams and clubs and making friends.
Joining clubs and teams, for many of the students, was a defining moment in their time here.
“It was definitely the first American experience I had – practicing on the football field,” said Julia Weigt, a 16-year-old from Germany about her experience on the field hockey team. “The was the first time I felt like, ‘whoa, I’m really in America right now.’ I’ve never seen that in real life before and just the vibe. We have practice and then after practice we drive to Dairy Dream together, have team dinner, stuff like that. That was definitely the start of my exchange year and the very first American experience I had.”
“My experience with the cheer team was amazing. I got really scared because I was thinking about joining the team but I wasn’t really sure about it. But when I joined the team, people were really nice to me. I appreciated it,” said 17-year-old Eva Bruno García from Spain. “My first football game was amazing – such an American experience. I cried after the game. I have a lot of pictures with my friends and it was really good.”
For some students, like 17-year-old Nao Miyauchi from Japan and 16-year-old Claire Tanti-Apichart from Thailand, the best experiences they had were outside of school.
“I liked trick-or-treating. It was the best experience for me,” Miyauchi said, which Tanti-Apichart agreed with. The two went trick-or-treating together this year.
For 17-year-old exchange students Nathan Feret from France and Yoshi Mochizuki from Japan, the experience has been a bit different because they are living in the same house, making them something like brothers.
The two of them were on the swim team together but have also had their own activities, friends and experiences from one another making their answers for what they will miss different as well.
“Something I’m going to miss, I think, is going to watch a football game with your friends or basketball games, all the sports stuff. In France we don’t have all these sports or fields, stuff like that at school,” Feret said. “This might be funny, but all the fast food too, I’m going to miss that.”
“There are two things that I’m going to really miss. The first one is mixed culture – in Japan, I think it’s a really closed culture. There aren’t so many races and immigrants and languages. There’s a good culture in Japan but it’s not mixed and there’s little diversity. In America there is a Thai restaurant and a Japanese restaurant and French, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, everything and there are so many cultures and I can experience huge diversity here. There are so many people here. I’m going to miss talking to my friends and teachers,” Mochizuki said. “The second thing is the big house and the pets. In Japan, less than half of the people have pets. So, I’m going to miss the crazy dogs or cats.”
In their seven months in the U.S., the students have learned not just about American culture, but about themselves.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak the language or if you’re insecure about something, you just have to be confident. Especially, you have to be open to new things and talk with people and try to make yourself strong,” said 16-year-old Caroline Wuensche from Germany. “Nobody cares, for example, what you wear because you’re just a human in the world and they are too.”
“I learned to trust more in myself. I think I grew as a person,” said Manuela Viracachá Becerra, a 16-year-old from Spain. “I learned to be confident and to know that we have bad days but you can make a bad day a good day.”
Other students reflected on the lessons they learned like gaining a newfound appreciation for their friends and family back home, becoming more independent and learning that sometimes the hardest choices are the ones that yield the biggest rewards.
The exchange students are set to return home in just a couple of months but will host International Night at CHS from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on May 2.
“International night is an annual event. The exchange students sort of led and it’s like a showcase. For the first hour and a half of the event students run tables where they have some sort of hands-on activity, a game, a craft. In the past, the German students taught people how to roll pretzels and we had access to an oven and baked pretzels. We have a girl from India who loves to do henna so she does henna tattoos,” Verkest. “The idea is that kids or attendees come, this is definitely a family friendly event, they get a little passport and then they go to the little activities and get a stamp in their passport. Then the last half hour is sort of a cultural variety show. This year we have a girl rollerskating. Last year we had some Irish dancers, some Bollywood dancers. So, we have a big variety that showcases diversity in the community.”
The Clarkston Community Schools International Exchange Program is always looking for host families to host the next round of exchange students. Anyone who is interested in serving as a host family, or would like more information on the program can contact Verkest at caverkest@clarkston.k12.mi.us.