AFS Students Hope to Learn Our Culture, Share Theirs

Coming from everywhere from Thailand to Bolivia, five international students will share their culture and learn from ours at Whitefish Bay High School this year.

AFS has been offering international exchange programs across the world for the past 60 years. The non-profit organization is now active in more than 90 countries.

The organization's mission statement states the organization "works toward a more just and peaceful world by providing international and intercultural learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities through a global volunteer partnership."

Of the five AFS students at the high school this year, two are participating in the state-sponsored YES (Youth Exchange Study Abroad) program, which was founded after 9/11 to encourage understanding between predominantly Muslim countries and the Western world.

Information about hosting a family can be found on the Milwaukee AFS chapter's website.

Get to know this year's foreign exchange students:

Midori Ando- Tokyo, Japan

Hosted by the Kubiak family.

An outgoing Tokyoite, Midori plans to be part of swim team, ski team, Key Club, and potentially forensics during her year abroad at Bay.

Favorite meal: Midori savors anything Asian, especially any kind of noodles.

Differences between here and home: Midori thinks that we have very beautiful cities here. She also says that she thinks its great that high school students can drive here, because in Japan, they cannot.

Culture shock: In Japan, there is really no time for parties, but here she is excited to see that there are many!

Dream career: Midori really likes World History and she likes helping people. She said she is studying abroad to start thinking specifically about how she wants to help people.

Aiman Al-Faqeeh– Sana'a, Yemen (YES)

Hosted by the Freeman-Merna family.

Coming all the way from the Middle East, Aiman plans to be very active in our school. Full of ambition, Aiman is interested in joining the soccer and debate teams, participating in Student Council and Business Club and writing for the Tower Times.

Favorite meal: Fahsa, a Yemeni meal of mashed meat, potatoes, and soup. 

Differences between here and home: Aiman says his country is a more conservative, Muslim country with women concealing most of their bodies, men carrying guns and families having many children.

Culture shock: One thing that Aiman never expected was having men walk naked in the locker room. He also can’t even imagine how cold our winters are.

Dream career: Businessman

Vane Donaire– Tarija, Bolivia

Hosted by the Henley family. 

Wanting to be a part of everything and very talented, Vanessa has quite a lot of things she wants to do during her year here. She is planning on playing soccer, participating in Key Club, Art Club, Anime Club, Yearbook, the robotics team, the forensics team, Student Council and Model United Nations. She also really wants to continue her passions of dancing and cooking here.

Favorite food: Saice Tarijeño, a traditional Bolivian dish. Google it!

Differences between here and home: Vanessa likes the food here but says Bolivian food is even more delicious. 

Culture shock:  Parties in Bolivia are much more formal, much different from high school parties here. She says girls dress up and go all out with makeup and high heels in Bolivia for every party. 

Dream career: Engineer 

Lenny Hansen– Föhr, Germany

Hosted by the Leinbach family.

Happy to be spending a year in the United States, Lenny will probably be an active member of the football and swim teams.

Favorite meal: Lenny’s favorite is simply delicious: pizza.

Differences between here and home: Whitefish Bay is much bigger and has more people than the small island in northern Germany where he lives. Of course, there is also less water here. Lenny also notes that people eat less food in his town.

Culture shock: Though Lenny knew a lot about where he was going, he thought he couldn’t swim here. He is happy to know that we swim too! He was also worried about not eating any meat with his half-vegetarian host family but has debunked that myth as well and loves the food here!

Dream career: Lenny would like to be a chemist who is also physically fit. His favorite class is physical education and is excited for weightlifting this year.

Natt Panyakorn– Chiang Mai, Thailand

Living with the generous Sapiro-LaFleur family.

Flown in from southeast Asia, Natt plans to spend her year here involved with swimming, drama club, choir, and the forensics team.

Favorite meal: Anything with seafood!

Differences between here and home: Here there are many choices of classes to choose from and it is very flexible. Back home, Natt does not have much choice in picking what courses she wants to take. She’s excited to learn new things and dabble in new subjects here. 

Culture shock: The food portions here are so much bigger than in Thailand.

Dream career: Psychologist

(Andrew Gegios is a junior at Whitefish Bay High School, the Club President of the high school AFS Club and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Whitefish Bay High School Tower Times newspaper.)