Four Clyde families host international students exchange
Clyde High School has four foreign exchange students this year: Maryjane (Jenny) Vamasiri, 18, Thailand, hosted by Carrie and Justin Stiltner; Leonie Duderstadt, 18, Germany, hosted by Karen and Dan Auxter; Joaquim (Jaco) Barros, 17, Sae Paula, Brazil, hosted by Dawn Tea Frey; and Mustapha Kemokai 17, Sierra Leone, West Africa, hosted by Jon and Christina Waugh.
All are sponsored by Youth for Understanding, an international educational intercultural exchange organization for more than 70 years. Jamie Withem, Clyde, is a community manager with YFU, responsible for placing all exchange students in Ohio.
They came to experience teenage life in America and Vamasiri found it much as in the movie, "High School Musical," but better than she had thought. "Clyde is a welcoming community, " she said, "nice and safe and sound." Her school day is much longer than in Thailand.
American schools have shorter class time than in Germany
For Duderstadt, school days in Germany are sometimes longer with as many as 13 required subjects. School sports were non-existent and sports and music would have been considered a hobby rather than a school sponsored activity. Duderstadt found local school rules more restricted than in Germany. She arrived on crutches due to an injury and had never marched with a school band.
All are on tennis teams at CHS. Duderstadt plays a sousaphone in Marching Band; a tuba in Concert Band and a trombone in Jazz and Pep Band. She learned to march, play the tuba and trombone by watching others. "I learned on the fly," she said.
Vamasiri is a cheerleader, plays basketball and is in ski club. Barros and Kemokai are on the soccer team. Barros is in ski club and Kemokai is on a bowling team.
Exchange students miss having public transportation in Clyde
They live in larger cities and find the lack of public transportation here frustrating, having to depend on friends or host parents for transportation everywhere. The guys both commented on our lower gas prices and the fact that one doesn't pump their own gas in Sierra Leone. Both liked the variety of stores here where one can find all kinds of merchandise at lower prices.
"Ohio is freaking us out," said Vamasiri, who checks the weather app on her phone a lot. Barros, from Brazil, was super excited when school was canceled because of snow. His school year is from February to November.
Kemokai said school in Sierra Leone was sometimes canceled because of high temperatures, when the heat caused the soles of his shoes to stick to the pavement. They only have two seasons, rainy and dry. He said Ohio is the most different from his home in Sierra Leone.
Even though English is not their native language, all speak and write well, learning English beginning in elementary school. At home Kemokai speaks Krio and Barros speaks Portuguese.
The host parents benefit from hosting. "Having a teenager is a lot to digest," said Justin Stiltner. Vamasiri is their fourth student and they are anticipating visits from two former students after Vamasiri returns home in June. He and Carrie have no children and enjoyed being part of her school life. Next year they will host a 15-year-old from Spain.
Barros, whose mother also was an exchange student, was placed temporarily with Frey when he arrived, she said, but circumstances changed and he is with her for the entire school year. She took the opportunity to take him on several trips around the U.S.
Leaving Ohio and returning home will be bittersweet. All plan to return at some point in their lives. Vamasiri said being an exchange student was a new experience she could not find anywhere else. "I don't regret it, you get to meet people from across the world," she said.
Kemokai wants to return for college here.
"I will tell my (German) friends, this is the best year of my life so far," said Duderstadt.
Families interested in learning about hosting an exchange student may contact Withem at 419-972-5993 or online at jwithem@yfu.org or yfuusa.org/meetthestudents.
Clyde Museum plans May 9 program
A program about Thaddeus B. Hurd, the benefactor and founder of the Clyde Museum, will be presented by Gene Smith, curator, at the Clyde Museum, 14 W. Buckeye St., across from the post office, at 6:30 p.m. May 9.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Talk About Clyde: Local families host four exchange students
