Exchange Student Stories

We would like to nominate Caterina Veggia for exchange student of the month. Caterina or Cate as she is known around the Kelly household is extraordinaire, superb, exceptional, excellent, wonderful, fabulous, marvelous, and outstanding! All kidding aside Cate has been an exceptional addition to the Kelly household and what a household: we have 3 kids ages 9-15, 2 dogs one of which is a Great Dane and two cats.

Cate is always well-mannered, her chores are done in a timely manner and she has 99 or better in all of her classes at school. Cate is not afraid to try something new, from strange American food to helping out at our church’s clothing ministry; she enthusiastically gives it a go. Cate was VERY excited about her first American Thanksgiving--she helped prepare every dish and sometimes she got to lick the blender and bowl clean!

It has been wonderful watching Cate interact with the kids and pick up our southern slang. On our way to the store as always the kids made a mad dash for the car trying to be the first one there to call dibs on where they would be sitting. As the kids stampeded down the front stairs and down the side walk I hear “GUN SHOT” from Cate closely followed by “that’s SHOT GUN not GUN SHOT” from our son Michael. All in all having Cate in our home has been fun and educational for everyone.

It all started last year at my photography studio in Pennsylvania.  I took 3 exchange student’s senior pictures and thought that it was really cool meeting and talking to these kids from other countries.  The one host mom was a local director from Ayusa and asked if we would be interested in hosting.  My son is 35 and has been out of our house for a very long time.  After talking it over with my wife, we decided it would be a great experience, and thought that we would give it a try.  We were approved and started emailing our exchange student, Klara, a few months before she was due to arrive.

We picked her up from the airport on August 7th and felt connected with her right from the start.  She was like a daughter we never had.  Klara came to my photo studio and started helping in the office the next day and was fitting right in.  She is an exceptional flute player and I told her about the marching band at Dallastown high school.  Band camp was already in progress, but after talking to the director he really wanted her to join.  The band starts practice 3 weeks before school starts and it was a great way for Klara to meet and make new friends before the start of school.  This was going to be her first challenge since her home town has 600 people and her new school has 2000 students in it.  She gets to band camp (never even hearing of a marching band) a week after the other band members already started.  The director told her that they practice in the parking lot which is laid out like a football field.  Her first question was “what is a football field”? Needless to say she was upset and frustrated after the first day but said that she was going back. 

She fit right in and made a lot of new friends and everyone helped her out.  Since then she has done marching bands, parades, band competitions, school orchestra and the York Youth Symphony and is top flute in each of these.  One of the girls in marching band invitied Klara to her church to play a flute duet and they are now planning a quartet for the school. She is now in the process of trying out for district band.

We have experienced horseback riding on the battlefields of Gettysburg, and have plans for visiting New York City at Christmas and going to Washington DC and getting a tour of the White House from a relative who is in the Secret Service.  We also took Klara to the Pittsburg Symphony to see a concert in which world famous flutist, Sir James Galway was performing.  As luck had it, she actually got to meet him in person outside of the concert hall, and had her picture taken with him , which really made her day!

On a funny note, since Klara has arrived her in Pennsylvania, she has witnessed an earthquake, hurricane, tornado warnings, floods and a record snow fall in October which left us without power for 5 days and this was just in her first 3 months here! We can’t wait to see what the next months will bring.

She fit right in at school and is doing quite well in all of her subjects.  She did a project for education week, in Spanish, on the Czech Republic in her Spanish class. Klara’s interest are her flute, hiking and photography.  She would like to try and go to a college in America and pursue a music degree or some type of career in becoming a translator.

This has been a great experience and we wish her all of the best.

Theerapong (nicknamed “Boom”) from Thailand has been living in Nebraska with the Hestermann family for over a month now. His host family has been greatly impressed with his positive attitude, thoughtfulness and willingness to embrace the intercultural experience. He has been very active in making friends, getting to know people, and is very involved in school activities such as the Science Club and tennis team.

Boom’s contagious attitude was already evident when he attended an Open House prior to the start of school. He heard his name being shouted by a group of his new tennis teammates, whom he had met a short time before at a preseason tennis meeting. He had already made friends and school hadn’t even begun! Boom continues to make friends and is doing well in all of his classes.

He has also embraced the American experience at home with his host family. Boom’s family describes him as “respectful of the rules and an attentive listener who asks questions if he doesn’t understand.” He has been open to eating all American food, and recently ordered food from a drive through window for the first time ever. However, he was happy to get a bottle of chili sauce so he could add some much-missed spice to his meals.

His host mother shares a story about Boom’s support and flexibility during an uncomfortable time: 

"My dad fell and had to be moved to a nursing home care facility.  I needed to go to another town to check on both parents, so I explained to Boom he could stay home or come with me.  I was pretty clear about what it would be like—many older people who were not very mobile, etc.  He decided to come with me and we talked on the drive up about how difficult it was to have my parents get older and have medical problems.  He was great with my dad—he talked with him and pushed his wheelchair around.  He was also very patient while we completed some paperwork, and was in general friendly and respectful to the other patients and staff at the facility. Overall, I felt much better about the trip due to his support."

We thank you Boom for displaying such a can-do attitude! 

Not knowing what you’re getting yourself into and walking an unknown path might sound scary to a lot of people, and that’s why they let their fear get the best of them and prevent them from doing what they want. But that wasn’t the case for me. Walking an unknown path and not knowing my destiny was what made this whole experience exciting in my eyes.

I chased my dream of becoming an exchange student in the United States and accomplished it by believing that nothing is impossible. Even though a lot of people said otherwise, I believed and most importantly I believed in myself. It got me where I am today; living my dream in Franklin, North Carolina with the Stringer family.

 Living away from home had taught me so many lessons, things that I ran into before but never learned an actual lesson from, because I always thought if I want something I will rely on someone else to do it for me instead of doing it myself. But here, I’ve learned to be more responsible. Being a year older and more independent has opened my eyes and made me wiser.

I think that Ayusa provides the best exchange program there is to make peoples’ dreams come true and I’m thankful to them and also The Department of State and to whoever made this possible; they were a big part of making my dream come true.
I would like to thank God, YES and Ayusa staff, along with my family and host family for giving me such an amazing year, a year that I will remember as long as I live, and it’s going to be a story to tell over and over again.

Lastly, all the people out there—young or old—I  just want to say to you: “Dream and if you want to dream, dream big because dreams do come true and also believe in yourself because if you don’t, then no one else will.”