For a 3A Kansas high
school with an average of about 250 students, hosting nine to 10 foreign
exchange students in one academic year is a little unusual.
But Toby McCollough,
principal of Rossville Junior-Senior High School, embraces those numbers.
“With us being a rural
community, this is a good way for our kids to get that culture that may already
be at another school,” McCollough said of his school’s foreign exchange student
program. “We try to reap the benefits from them (foreign exchange students)
being here.”
Although having an
average of nine to 10 foreign exchange students each year for about the past
three years has slightly increased class sizes, McCollough said his staff also
has fully embraced having more of the visiting students.
“Not a one of them
said they didn’t want another one (student),” McCollough said, recalling the
time when he told his staff there would be a higher count of foreign exchange
students. “They (teachers) extract knowledge from them.”
McCollough said his
students and the Rossville community continue to welcome their visitors, who
have come from all across the globe. He said that full acceptance becomes more
evident when former exchange students bring their own families back to the town
of a little more than 1,000 people to visit.
“They feel that
connection,” he said. “They have lifelong friends here.”
Much of the credit
McCollough gives to the success of his school’s foreign exchange student
program is directed toward Kelly Brown, a Rossville resident and the regional
coordinator for the Academic Year in America, or AYA, program for the past five
years.
Brown said she is
responsible for 19 visiting students out of the estimated 50 students who are
in Kansas currently as part of the AYA. She said the program requires her to
either meet with or contact the student, host family and the student’s
biological family monthly.
“It works really well,”
Brown said. “If we’re in contact continuously, we can work out a problem before
it escalates into a bigger problem. We take pride in that we take care of our
students. We don’t just get them here and then forget about them.”
Brown also said she
gives credit for the success of the visiting student program to the staff and
administration at Rossville Junior-Senior High School.
“I give kudos to them
for allowing us to have this many,” she said, referring to the nine students
who will attend the school this spring semester. “They (students) blend in
really well. They get good grades and usually don’t struggle academically.”
Before she matches a
student with a family, Brown said she spends a lot of time going through the
students’ profiles to understand their preferences and personalities.
Julie Spring said she,
her husband and their son, Zach, now 22, have hosted foreign exchange students
each year since the 2008-09 school year from Japan, Germany and Pakistan. Their
current student, Rafael de Arruda, is from Brazil.
“I think that the Rossville
kids have been very good to them,” Spring said of the foreign exchange students
who have been in the community. “They love that people talk to them but they
really want friends. They came here to be part of America and the culture and
sometimes they’re afraid or they’re embarrassed. They just don’t know how to
ask.”
Spring said as part of
the Academic Year in America program, visiting students have to give
presentations on their culture and lives, as well as perform a required number
of community service hours. She said Bilal Channa, the student she hosted last
year, resonated with her and the Rossville community in particular, because he
is a practicing Muslim.
“He engaged a lot with
adults,” she said. “Some of the things he would consider to be important wouldn’t
be something a normal 16-year-old would think is important. He worries about
what’s happening in his country, he worries about world things.”
Spring said after
hosting Bilal, whom she remains in regular contact with, she sees global events
from a completely new perspective.
“What does happen in
the rest of the world is important to us,” she said. “I’m thankful that he gave
me that.”
