Elena Bongiovanni, front center, stands with her “U.S. family,” the Smails, 7-year-old Karolyne, left, and Julianya, 9, right, and, back row, Kathryn and Jon Smail. Elena is from the Liguria region in Italy (in gold).

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Sunday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.As the coronavirus pandemic swept across his homeland, Paolo Bongiovanni worried for his 17-year-old daughter, Elena, who was attending high school in the United States as an exchange student in Butler.His native Italy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and Bongiovanni knew it was just a matter of time before it ravaged America too.“At first, it wasn’t easy,” Bongiovanni said, his 21-year-old daughter, Giulia, translating for him. “But thankfully, we could see that she was safe and happy surrounded by a loving and caring family.”Elena had the option of returning home.She declined.Elena didn’t want to give up. She didn’t want to let the coronavirus win. She wanted to see things through to the end.Since she arrived, she has made lifelong friends.She has found a new “U.S. family,” as she calls it, in Jon and Kathryn Smail and their two daughters, Julianya, 9, and Karolyne, 7 — her Butler hosts.And Elena said she wouldn’t trade what she has experienced — even the hardships of COVID-19 — for anything.“I met amazing people,” Elena said. “I’m very happy I decided to come here. (It has been) probably better than what I could have imagined.”Elena will finally return home June 21 after a 10-month odyssey no one could have predicted.She will take with her the memories of a time spent in a foreign land during a global crisis.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Sunday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.