One of the greatest things I have ever experienced was hosting a foreign exchange student. In 2022-2023, my family took the opportunity to house an exchange student from Italy. His name was Jacopo, and even though I wasn’t totally keen about the idea, my mom convinced us it would be a great year with him.

As time went on my life became so normal with him, like when we went to the Grand Canyon, and went around Homewood trying different pizzas to see if any would impress him (they did not!). In the end it felt like he was a part of the family. His departure was hard and sad, but my family has found ways to meet up with him since: once in Paris and once at my sister’s graduation.

Since my siblings have graduated, the house became lonely, which led me to convince my family to host another exchange student for this school year. After a long time of debating, we found my soon-to-be sister from the Netherlands, Hannah! She loves to act, dance, and to go shopping! Words cannot express how excited I am to host her next year, and to let all of my friends and family meet her. 

The benefits I have experienced in this process are a deeper connection, learning more about different countries’ cultures, sharing my life with someone who does things totally different, and getting to see how different people act and behave based on where they were raised.

I will forever be thankful for these experiences, and I would strongly recommend to other families to host a student because it really puts into perspective how blessed we are. I will forever be grateful for my mother when she convinced our family to host Jacopo back in 2022.