The American Field Service (AFS) club recently visited the small town of Lenoir, North Carolina, on a domestic exchange program.
Twenty Old Rochester students with the AFS went to experience the way of life and the high school experience in North Carolina. The exchange program works like this: the students of ORR visit Lenoir, and in April the students from Lenoir spend time here in the Tri-Town.
For the AFS club as a whole, this trip marked their first visit to North Carolina, but this is definitely not the school’s first rodeo when participating in domestic exchanges.
“Honestly, it’s been going on for many years,” said AFS coordinator Kim Corazzini, whose grown daughter was once an AFS participant. “And it had been going on prior to that, so it has a long history at Old Rochester, and there are other schools in the country that do it as well.”
But the exchange is more than just a trip to another state just for fun. It is educational to students and widens their worldview.
“I think we tend to believe that we’re Americans, so we’re all the same, but I think that the high school environment in schools from different places in America is very different,” said Corazzini. “In some ways, I think that you wouldn’t have to go that far to figure out that different high schools have different cultures.”
But when kids do go through the exchange, says Corazzini, they see that different parts of our country are very different from one another.
The excitement for the exchange began well before the trip. Most of the participating students had already received messages of introduction from their host families by the beginning of the week, and all were ecstatic. The ORR students on the trip stayed with families in Lenoir who opened their hearts and homes to the newcomers.
Wednesday, March 9, was marked on every exchange student’s calendar as the day they departed for North Carolina. At noon, two limos appeared in the school parking lot to pick up the 20 students and their luggage to make the trek to the airport in Providence. After two hour-long flights and a layover in Baltimore, the group arrived in Charlotte and then drove an hour and a half to Lenoir, North Carolina to meet their host families and turn in for the night.
Everyone was up bright and early the next morning to partake in the classes at Hibriten High School. Students were greeted with a speech from the school’s principal and a breakfast from Bojangles and Krispy Kreme, both classic southern food chains. Students then followed their host families to sit in on two of their Hibriten classes.
After the first two classes were done, the students and hosts piled onto the bus to drive to Lenoir’s town center for lunch at a local pizza restaurant and a tour around the town with local artist Charlie Frye, as well as a visit to the local history museum.
After the tours, the group disbanded to their separate host families for dinner, and was then invited to a welcome mixer at a Lenoir host family’s house in the evening.
Friday in Lenoir began at 7:15 am with a bus ride to the neighboring town of Asheville to visit the Biltmore mansion, a mansion built by the Vanderbilts, the same family who constructed many of the Newport mansions. After a tour, the students were allowed time to explore the town of Asheville and eat lunch.
After the ride back home, everyone departed to their respective homes to enjoy a dinner with their host families. In the evening, everyone regrouped to visit a local bowling/arcade/laser tag complex to spend time with their new friends.
Saturday began with a little bit of time to sleep in. All were asked to be at the high school by 8:30 am in order to depart for a day of hiking in the mountains near the neighboring town of Boone. Students ate a picnic lunch and were given free time to shop in the small stores of Boone.
Dinner was provided at a restaurant (Woodland BBQ) in yet another close town named Blowing Rock. After some down time with host families, all were invited to a bonfire at the home of one of the host families as a final goodbye.
Sunday marked the day the students were to return home. The bus left Hibriten High School at 5:00 in the morning to make the trek back to the Tri-Town.
The collective emotion from the students from both schools was nothing but excitement, especially when everyone was spending time with each other.
ORR junior Colleen Garcia said that her favorite part of the trip was “When we weren’t all in separate groups but … all together and having fun as a big group … definitely the bonfire, where everyone got to be together.”
The trip was over, but many friends were made, and those who went on the exchange are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their North Carolina friends to visit ORR in April.
As for other AFS club plans at ORR, they will be holding a fundraiser in order to decrease the price for future activities.
The AFS club and the Dreamfar Program are partnering to collect soft items like clothing, curtains, and blankets. The AFS is paid per the pound. There will be a ‘Fill A Truck’ on Friday, March 18, after school, on Saturday, March 19, from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, and on Sunday, March 20, from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.
By Sienna Wurl