Meet Our Students

I live in northern Italy with my parents and my older brother. I attend a scientific high school because I enjoy subjects like mathematics. I like spending time with my family, doing activities such as playing board games, watching movies, biking, and skiing. I practice athletics and I am a middle-distance runner. I also enjoy swimming, cycling, walking, and ice skating. In my free time, I like being with friends, watching TV series (especially Suits), reading novels and magazines, and playing video games. I love cooking and eating, especially parmigiana, mushroom risotto, and chocolate desserts. I chose to spend a school year in the United States to improve my English and to experience a different culture and school system. I am excited to try new subjects and meet new people. I am interested in airplanes and would like to become an airline pilot in the future. I am very grateful to my host family for welcoming me into their home, and I hope we will spend a wonderful year together.

Miharu is a cheerful girl from Japan who is excited to improve her English! Traveling on a school trip to Singapore, hosting an exchange student from India, and getting to know a Taiwanese student who joined her school, has helped her realize that learning English well will help her improve relationships and better understand cultures worldwide. She loves taking photos and is even a member of a photo club. She is excited to capture special moments of her exchange year! With a passion for Japanese anime and manga, Miharu is excited to see the books on the shelves of an American bookstore or library. She has a few allergy sensitivities that she manages well on her own. Ultimately, she is excited to learn from her host family and share wonderful memories together!

Cynthia is a thoughtful and gentle student from Taiwan who enjoys quiet moments, meaningful connections, and expressing herself through the arts. She loves listening to jazz music and has played the cello since childhood, appreciating its bold and expressive personality. In her free time, she enjoys cheerful movies, exploring new places, cooking—especially desserts—and sharing food with others. Curious and open‑minded, Cynthia hopes to come to America to experience everyday life with a host family, challenge herself with new activities like cheerleading, and participate fully in cultural exchange. She is excited to share Taiwanese traditions such as making dumplings and writing Spring Festival couplets, while also learning and embracing American customs. Above all, Cynthia wants to build warm relationships, discover a new way of life, and bring those experiences back to share with her friends at home.

Faustine is a girl that loves adventure and trying new things. Her family has a camper that they travel in on vacations to see new places. She has a good perspective of being flexible when on these adventures! Faustine enjoys going to camps so she can try new sports and other activities. Always learning and trying something different, she doesn't miss an opportunity to tackle a new task. When she has free time, Faustine loves reading, especially romance novels, and listening to music like rap, pop or K-pop. Whatever the day brings, she finds a way to fill it with adventure! Faustine is so excited to join your family this school year!

Meet Nina from France! She has practiced modern dance for the past 10 years, and this allowed her to meet new people and participate in competitions. This taught her to manage stress and gain confidence, but she has not been able to do it much lately and it would be great if she was able to participate in a dance program in the US. Nina also enjoys school, her subjects like business management, economics and human resources will help her with her future endeavors. She hopes to join some clubs at school to focus on leadership as well. Her friends would describe her as fun, outgoing, meticulous, and loves to laugh. Nina likes to meet with friends for coffee, celebrate birthdays, go to concerts and watch football games. She wants to continue to discover new things during her exchange year and cannot wait to meet her new host family.

Larissa is excited to spend a year in America as an exchange student. She lives with her parents and several pets and values time with her family and friends. Larissa describes herself as shy at first but outgoing, caring, and social once she feels comfortable. She enjoys activities like horseback riding, theater, crafting, music, and spending time outdoors. She hopes her exchange year will help her become more independent, experience everyday life in America, build strong relationships with her host family and new friends, and share her Dutch culture while learning from new experiences.

Lucia lives with her parents, sister and cat. With her mom, she enjoys walking outside and going to the gym three times a week and to do weights, stretching, and other exercises together. Her time with her dad is spent watching soccer, either on TV or at a stadium, and they also enjoy learning about new cultures, meeting new people and visiting lots of places together. Lucia loves shopping, doing make up, singing and dancing with her sister. She loves animals and has always wanted a pet of her own. Her cat is a recent addition to the family that she is over the moon about. Lucia's favorite animal is horses, she has been riding for eight years, including show jumping. She has also played volleyball in the past. She really enjoys sports and being active. In the future, Lucia hopes to be a psychologist.

Roman is a well-balanced boy from Germany. He is looking forward to coming to the United States, joining a host family, and becoming involved at school. Improving his language skills and making meaningful connections are his top priorities. His own family has taught him about respect, quality time, and responsibility, all of which he hopes to find and share with an American host family. Some of his favorite activities are soccer, chess, skiing, and cooking. Roman appreciates balance in life like being physically active and also having calm, relaxing activities. He hopes to truly engage with his host family because he wants to experience real family life to understand the daily routines, traditions, and values of an American family.

Meet Arstenbek from Kyrgyzstan. He is a serious student with a fun side! He is excited to learn about American culture and wants to try baseball and American football. He enjoys hobbies like chess, Monopoly, and table tennis. He is a recipient of the prestigious FLEX scholarship for students that have demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities. He spends weekdays at a boarding school where he is engaged in several interesting projects called GreenLand, Bilimbot, Olimpfund and Olimplearn. He describes the boarding school as an opportunity that he is extremely grateful to be a part of where he is learning cleanliness and respect for elders along with academic subjects. On weekends he is home with his family which includes his mother, father and ten-year-old brother. Helping out at home when he is there is very important to Arstanbek, he cleans, cooks and grocery shops for his family. He is also very passionate about his culture; he plays a traditional instrument called the Chopo-Chor. He also acknowledges what an amazing act of kindness hosting a student is and will truly appreciate this opportunity to its fullest.