Fauquier High School offers a program where students from other countries have the opportunity to live with a host family for the entire duration of the school year. This allows these students to experience American culture and see different sites throughout America. This year Fauquier has hosted students from Switzerland, Rep. of Korea and Brazil, as well as Kyrgyzstan, Belgium, Estonia, Indonesia and Spain.
Senior, Hyun Koon from Korea likes the freshness of the air and the grass and how different it is from his home country. Koon loves basketball and states, “I really like the basketball team and would really like to play for them.” FHS is a very big school and many of the students love how spacious our campus is. For example, Koon says, “I also really like the size of the classrooms, as well as how clean the school is.” Another aspect that Koon enjoys about FHS is how accepting people are and how willing people are to get to know people who are not from America. Koon expresses this by stating, “I really like how the people on the team, and the coach for the basketball team, are very accepting of me and make me feel welcomed on the team.”
Audrey Caloz is another exchange student. She is a senior from Switzerland who really enjoys running for the cross country team and the friends she’s gained being a part of the team. Audrey also anticipates being on the basketball team for the winter season. Caloz practices basketball in the evening whenever she is not running for cross country. Caloz says, “I really hope I can get onto the team, I’m practicing a lot.” She also has gone to many sites throughout America like Philadelphia and Washington D.C and loved both. She also loves New York, which is one of her favorite places she’s visited so far. One place she hopes to go to during this year is California as that is her American dream.
There are many differences between how Swiss schools are run and how American schools are run. Caloz states, “One difference we have is the start and end times for school. In Switzerland, we start at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m.” This is a huge difference in the end time compared to Fauquier schools. Caloz also mentions how in Switzerland they only practice sports twice a week instead of five times a week, like at Fauquier. Caloz says that her school has breaks during classes as well as a two-hour lunch period. In addition to the lengthened lunch period, Caloz added, “My school in Switzerland also has a different schedule every day as well and we are not allowed to pick our classes.”
Both of these students show lots of promise in and outside the classroom and are very happy to be a part of the Fauquier community.
