This school year, Barlow is welcoming two new exchange students to our school. Coming to us from Spain are Maria Navarro Lodoso and Claudia Gonzalez, both of whom are in their senior year. Maria is living with Amelia Oltean. It is great that our school and Spain offer exchange programs for students, as this benefits their later careers and looks impressive on their resumes. Not only that, but it gives these students experience from somewhere else in the world and helps teach them a different language and culture.
Both Claudia and Maria are staying here for an entire year. Maria said, “I have also been to Argentina and other parts of Europe.” But unlike those other places, they are attending a school and staying here for a long period of time.
Barlow is very different from their school in Spain. Maria said, “At school, we stayed in the same class with the same students all day, and our teachers would switch and come to us.” This is very different for them, but they are adapting well. They both said that they want to do a sport for our school. Maria stated, “I love basketball, and I hope to play for this school.” While Claudia shared, “I want to do cheer-leading for basketball season this year.”
They each said they didn’t know exactly why they wanted to come to the United States, but they said that being here would be great for them in their future, and learning English would also be useful for them. Also, they said that America is what they expected, in a good way, of course, and that they were very excited to come and attend school with us. “It’s very easy to make friends, and my teachers are nice,” said Claudia. Maria agreed, showing that we have been very welcoming to our exchange students so far this year, and we hope to continue.
In the future, if you are interested in hosting an exchange student, you can look at the Barlow website and look into hosting next year. You would be giving someone a place to stay for the school year and a new friend. It could benefit both you and the exchange student. When they are staying with you, they get the opportunity to experience living in an American home, eating American food, and so many other things they wouldn’t experience anywhere else. This would be great to welcome anyone coming here, and you get your own experience of hosting.
