Students and their host families have interesting experiences through program
Alessandra Natali never thought she would enjoy going to school so much, but her junior year at Knoch High School has been one of her favorites so far.
At her old school, she was in the same classroom all day, and it didn’t have any sports or extracurricular activities to take part in. With high school being so different, she said her education has surprisingly become one of her favorite parts of being in the United States.
“We don't change the classroom; we stay all the time in the same one,” Alessandra said of her old school. “You are there for five years with the same classmates with the same teachers. No lunch, we don't have sports, no elective subjects. No teams, no clubs.”
Alessandra is visiting Knoch from Florence, Italy, and living with a host family, the Ducksteins, along with another student visiting from Spain, Andrea Perez-Montaner.
Butler County has a few options that allow people to host students from around the world in their homes. Alessandra and Andrea are visiting through International Cultural Exchange Services (ICES), coordinated in the region by Kathryn Smail, who is also a support teacher at Northwest Elementary School.
Smail said anyone can go through the process of becoming a host for students from other countries, and she does her best to promote the program throughout Butler County. There are about a dozen students from other countries visiting Butler County this school year, she said.
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