Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
GUILLERMO PEREZ and Annelie Rodestock, foreign exchange students from Spain and Germany, attend Wakefield-Marenisco K-12. Both students identify with the different focus of American schools vs the schools in their home country, with Americans focused on the social aspect, school spirit, and sports instead of simply academics.
By IAN MINIELLY
Wakefield - The Wakefield-Marenisco school has two foreign exchange students in the junior class being hosted by local families.
Annelie Rodestock, from Leipzig, Germany, and Guillermo Perez, from Ibiza, Spain, arrived in Wakefield in September and will depart after the school year is complete.
Rodestock was hoping for sunny and warm California when she submitted her wish list to the placement agency, but she likes Wakefield and is very happy here.
The students have visited Duluth and Appleton and are scheduled to make visits to Washington D.C. and Minneapolis. There is also a potential trip to Chicago in the spring with teacher Chris Tweiten's government class.
Asked for their impressions of the United States and how it has lined up with their expectations, Rodestock said the country is huge, especially compared to the small European Union countries she grew up in and around.
Perez said the food and the people are the things he has noticed that are different. The people in the United States are more welcoming and friendly than in Spain and Europe, he said.
Both students pointed out repeatedly the differences in the atmosphere in school here versus at home. Back in Spain and Germany, the teachers are very distant and professional and it seems like their sole purpose is to educate and ensure the kids going through school have the best opportunity to achieve a high paying career post-graduation. In comparison, the teachers here are more personal, they become an active element in the kids lives as more than teachers, almost to the point of being friends with students, but not quite.
Both students agreed sports and school pride and spirit are much bigger here than back home. In Europe, they attend classes, study and focus on a future in the workforce, whereas here they are experiencing school as a much more social element of life, where people are proud of their school and want to be successful in school-sponsored activities like sports.
Perez ran cross country in the fall and is on the skiing team, while Rodestock is on the cheering squad and on the basketball team.
Rodestock, upon returning to Germany, will be forced to repeat her junior year because of the year she spends abroad, however because her focus is on English studies and she intends to go to college in London, the year lost is worth it to practice her English on a daily basis.
Perez will return as a senior, but feels the need to bring in a tutor to make up for what he is missing here educationally. Because of the reduced standards between the U.S. education system and Spain's, he will be behind his peers in math and science when he returns, but he should be able to make it up with the help of a tutor.
Interestingly, there is a hand-drawn picture in the W-M office. The picture is a drawing of the school made by the first exchange student in the school's history. Roger Schoeller, 1968-69, Duren, West Germany.
The drawing shows Wakefield and Schoeller likely left a lasting impression on each other. It remains to be seen the legacy Perez and Rodestock will leave on the community and what they will take from their time on the Gogebic Range.
