Home on the range: Foreign-born Abilene Christian High trio adapts to West Texas

Editor's note: It's a second week of graduations in Abilene. Our features begin with Abilene Christian High School and continue with Hardin-Simmons University on Friday and McMurry on Saturday.

Numbers don't lie, but they can be misleading.

For example, 19% of the graduating class of 2022 at Abilene Christian High School is foreign born — from China, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.

But then, the class totals 16 students.

Thus, the experience of this trio in the American education system has been a small group experience in a different way.

Sofia Baddour, Charlie Lee-Alliston and Mingyang "Leo" Fang joined 13 other classmates this week on a senior trip to the Fort Worth-Dallas area. They had Top Golf, go-carts, an escape room experience and dinner at Texas de Brazil planned, among other adventures.

Graduation is planned for 4 p.m. Saturday at Beltway Park Church's north campus, just two miles up the street.

That's not far for three students who traveled much farther to get to West Texas.

Just part of the class

Yet, "we don't think of them as the international students," said Principal Van Gravitt, whose son, Elijah, is valedictorian of the Class of '22. "They're just part of the class. This time of year, it's fun to reflect on how they got here and how they've assimilated.

"They're just part of us now."

And that's the way the trio looks at it, too. They didn't need to bond as strangers in a land strangely infatuated by sports and fond of food cooked in grease.

Lee-Alliston has made a name for himself, winning private school state track championships in the 100 and 200 meters and finishing second in the long jump. Next year, he will compete in track and field just across the street at Elmer Gray Stadium for Abilene Christian University.

More: Abilene Christian High's Lee-Alliston signs to run track at Abilene Christian University

Gravitt said a small group experience is what other students experience at ACHS, with its smaller enrollment.

"That's true for everybody here, but particularly for someone coming in from a completely different culture," he said. "It's easy to get to know people and for people to get to know them. Teachers can invest in them and make sure they are OK, help them along the way, especially during the transition time."

The principal noted that Lee-Alliston's parents travel between Abilene and the UK, and his sister, Rose, attends ACU, but the parents of Baddour and Fang are not here.

More: Centerstage with: Rose Lee-Alliston, of ACU's 'Light in the Piazza'

"There are a lot of family challenges with travel and business," Gravitt said. "That amplifies the importance of the family atmosphere here. They all have family sacrifices to make to be here."

Hearing from them

Before they hit the road Tuesday, the trio of ACHS grads to be talked about their high school experience in Abilene, Texas, USA.

Baddour grew up along the coast of Venezuela. She came to Abilene Christian School as a seventh-grader, living with an aunt here. An older sister also came to Abilene to further her studies.

Lee-Allison and Fang are in their fourth years in Abilene. Lee-Alliston's father's theater production business brought the family to town while, like Baddour, education brought Fang to the U.S. Friends of his family went to school here, he said, and "love it."

"So I came here as well," he said.

Fang grew up about a three-hour drive from Hong Kong.

1. What has been your best American experience?

Baddour: The friendliness, she said. "Everyone's really nice here. It's not really American but it just stood out to me."

Lee-Alliston: "I'd say all the sports. It's a way bigger thing here than it is in the UK, the way it's implemented through the schools and the opportunity to participate in everything. How Friday nights feel. That was the biggest thing for me, all the different sports."

Lee-Alliston played football for the ACHS Panthers, excelling at linebacker.

Fang: "Society as a whole is really into athletic events. They really keep up with the celebrities ... football stars and the Super Bowl and all the events. That is a huge shift for me."

Asked if Americans overdo it with sports, Fang laughed and said, "In my opinion, yes."

2. Did the three students bond due to being "international" students, or was the bonding more to the entire class?

Baddour: "The entire class. I think that has to do with my personality." As she felt welcomed, she opened up to her classmates, she said. "I did make some close friends," she said.

Lee-Alliston: "Everyone welcomed me in and didn't think anything of me coming from a different country. That really helped me fit in with everyone. I jumped in and got to meet everyone."

With the most pronounced accent of the three, Lee-Alliston laughed at the idea that everyone loves to hear him speak.

Fang: "I'd say the class as a whole because there are only 16 people in the class, and the class is more close-knit."

3. What was hardest thing to get used to living in the USA?

Baddour: "Speaking English, I'd say," she said. She did not speak fluently upon her arrival, she said. "I knew basic stuff. I took ESL (English as a Second Language) for I think it was two years."

Was it easy to pick up? "It's easier when you're living around people who speak it all the time. I think it's easier than many other languages."

Lee-Alliston: "Honestly, the climate change. Being in England, it rains every day, pretty much and here it barely rains, and it's warm most of the time."

Are you used to the West Texas weather variances by now, or do you just put up with it? "A little bit of both."

Fang: "I'd say the language barrier as well. I didn't grow up speaking English. Language was hard to adjust to. And the food. I am not used to that much grease. I adapted."

4. What was the easiest thing to get used to?

Baddour: "The fine arts that I have here. I took choir, I took art, I took pottery. I never tried it before and I like it a lot. We made many different things."

Lee-Alliston: "The easiest thing was the food. I like barbecue food a lot. This is the best place to go for it."

Does he have a favorite place for 'cue? "Not really. I just love steak, so anywhere that has steak."

Fang: "The things I got to try that I wouldn't gotten to try back home. I got to play golf. That is something I never would be able to participate (in) if I hadn't come here. I like the food as well, especially the rolls at Texas Roadhouse."

(Lee-Alliston laughed, as if he agreed).

Fang played on the school golf team, encouraged by friends. Is he good?

"You have to define good," he joked.

5. What do you have planned for the future?

Baddour: She still is deciding on where to go to college, she said. "I want to major either in IT or business. I don't really know what to major in but I thought business was a broad area and I would be able to find a job in that. And IT, I think I would really like it."

Lee-Alliston: Besides track, he plans for a double major in financial management and computer science.

Any interest in the theater, like the rest of his family?

"Not my deal," he said.

Fang: "I got accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. I think I want to pursue something along the lines of accounting or business. I would like to be an accountant just because I feel like I have the capacity to sustain the repetitive work."

Asked what each discovered about themselves on this journey, Baddour said it was her interest in art — which she plans to continue in some way — and Lee-Alliston said it discovering his work ethic to excel. In a way, it was the same for Fang — finding he had the patience to work with numbers.

Greg Jaklewicz is editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and general columnist. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Home on the range: Foreign-born ACHS trio adapts to West Texas