For teenagers, high school is a time of growth, exploration, and realizing future dreams by spreading their wings.  Some teenagers decide to spread their wings a little farther away from home and a little earlier than others. Every school year, approximately 50,000 teenagers enroll in American high schools as foreign exchange students. There are many reasons why these students chose the United States for their exchange year: for some, their home countries have very standardized classes, so they enjoy choosing from a large variety of elective classes and extracurricular activities that are not offered in their own schools.  Not surprisingly, American media is a large influencing factor for many foreign exchange students, as they watch American movies and TV shows depicting the average life of American teenagers.  The opportunity to improve their English proficiency is another large factor for these brave students, as it opens many doors for them in their future educational plans, whether they continue to study in the United States or return to their home countries.

Lutheran High School hosts several foreign exchange students every year.  The Cartwright family of Highlands Ranch is just one of Lutheran’s families that opened their hearts and home to a young foreign exchange student.  Laure Helene Aussandon is from Annecy, France and chose to spend her junior year of school here at LuHi because, “It was my dream to live as an American teenager.”  She was most excited to, “learn the different culture and meet new people.”  Paige Cartwright, sophomore at Lutheran, was excited to host Laure Helene. “I wanted to get the experience of having someone from the other side of the world in my life every day.  I wanted to help someone see American culture.”  She went on to say, “I thought we would be best friends and we would do a lot of things together and that I would learn a little bit of the language of the foreign exchange student.”  

It was a roller coaster of emotions when the Cartwrights first met their foreign exchange student.  Nathan, host parent, said, “it was a mix of excitement and trepidation,” when they first met Laure Helene.  Paige was optimistic and said, “It was really exciting and I wanted to know everything about her right away and I wanted to show her everything, as well.”  To Laure Helene, the initial meeting was, “very emotional because everything was new.”  The hardest part of life in America for Laure Helene has been to be so far from her family and friends while trying to make new friends here.  She has enjoyed learning English and discovered she loves fast food, which they do not have in France.  Some shared experiences the family enjoyed together were Homecoming and road tripping over Christmas break.

Laure Helene says this experience has changed her by, “becoming independent, learning a new language, making new friends with a different culture and humor.”  She offers other foreign exchange students this advice: “its not always perfect and its hard, so you have to be 100% in this experience.”  Nathan says he has enjoyed “watching my daughters and our exchange student navigate through life.  Adolescence is probably the hardest part of life.”  He had some excellent final thoughts for other families that might be considering hosting a foreign exchange student.  “Think hard about how your family operates.  Think about what morals, values, and characteristics you want this stranger to have before you let them into your home; and once they get here, be willing to open your heart to a kid that’s on the greatest adventure of their life!”