'School is fun again!'

My name is Maren and I work in the Xplore office in Hamburg. I take care of most of the applicants that have the U.S. as their destination.

This past February I got the chance to visit some of our students placed in Indianapolis, IN and surroundings. I also was able to spend some time with their Local Coordinators (LCs) from CIEE and the Regional Director of the area, Edwina. This trip gave me a lot of insight into how much work and passion they all, CIEE and our students alike, put into this experience so that students and their host families all have a great time!

Edwina and her LCs had made a plan for me so that I could go see as many students as possible and also get tours through a few schools, either by our students or by a staff member, to see how different the schools are and what they offer in terms of classes but also regarding their amenities.

It was really impressive to see how many different possibilities students in the U.S. have in school, independent from their interests: humongous and well-equipped gyms or even pools (swimming is big in Indianapolis!), great musical groups or orchestras, International Clubs, debate clubs and a lot more. There is something for everyone and our students that I met told me that this has been a great way for them to get integrated in school life and to make new friends. When I asked them what one of the most difficult parts of the exchange was, almost all of them said the first day of school – being there among complete strangers, surrounded by English all day, not finding one’s way around, standing in the cafeteria at lunch time looking for a place to sit… But being open and going to those extracurricular activities has helped them a lot.

They also were impressed by the choice of subjects that were presented to them. They all had to take some classes like Maths, English, Geography and the like, but they most enjoyed the subjects we don’t usually have in Germany: Pottery, Nutrition, Weight Lifting, Choir, Drawing and many more. According to them “school is fun again!”

I got to see a lot of things and meet many nice people while I was there: different types of neighborhoods (from middle of nowhere to close to the big city), sports fields (covered in snow…), I met guidance counselors and other school staff, was introduced to host families, enjoyed road trips to students with members of CIEE and learned more about their work, how they recruit host families and handle certain problems.

All in all it was a wonderful experience to see what all the work put into applications leads to: the students’ performance in school and their interactions with others, speaking English without great efforts, embracing the American culture and everything that comes along with it (household duties, rules, homework, sports competitions).  I went to the Orientation Meeting in New York with some of the students I visited and it has been amazing to see how much they have developed personally and improved their English since then! It really felt like they had become part of the American life.

So thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!