Senior Noel Affolter (right) working hard and having fun in ceramics class.
Photo by Alex Babinchak
Imagine leaving everyone you love to travel to another country, stay with another family, and begin your last year of high school in a new school. Suburban welcomes two new students as they take on this journey. Senior Noel Affolter is from Switzerland and Valentin Oettinger, also a senior, is from Germany.
When he described his purpose for coming here for school, Noel Affolter said, “I always liked the U.S., but unfortunately I never managed to stay here long enough to get to know the nice people, so I thought I’d come here and see the high school life.”
Even with the perks of living in the U.S., there are many things that could be missed when traveling here from another country. Valentin Oettinger said, “I miss my dog, and of course my family and friends, and a couple foods and drinks. But I don’t really get the chance to miss all that. Daily life is too busy.”
Oettinger is hosted by the Weber family and Affolter is hosted by the Hammel family. Autumn and Alex Hammel are both students at YSHS. Housing an exchange student is a big responsibility and a huge honor.
Affolter said that the Hammel family is very nice and he is lucky to be staying with them. The two students can be seen working hard at school, socializing, and going to different school events such as Homecoming and sports games.
They have both made many new friends in such a short period of time. Similar to all high school students, some classes are prefered over others. Affolter’s favorite classes are Ceramics and Spanish, and Oettinger prefers US Studies and TV Studio.
As far as the future is concerned, Oettinger is interested in a job involving journalism or video business. He has also thought about joining the German Army. Affolter is interested in studying architecture. Senior year is an important time to start thinking about your future, and this program allows students from all over the world to acquire new experiences.