Since Woodgrove opened its doors 15 years ago, exchange students from everywhere have been welcomed with open arms. The students have come from Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Japan, and more. This year, Woodgrove has the pleasure of being a host school to 5 different exchange students from all around the world. Some exchange students decide to try out an American sport or can do a sport that is from their own country and is offered here in the states.
“For students who want to do an exchange year in Loudoun County, they have to be represented by an agency. In which, the agency is responsible for gathering information on the exchange students, they determine if the students meet the criteria and then are responsible to find a host family,” stated registrar Mrs. Bernadette Ismael. A lot of effort is put in so students are able to experience school in another country.
Some exchange students may choose to do a sport during their year in America, and some may not. Silvia Oliver Pellin, an exchange student from Spain, shared, “I used to play in Spain since I was in second grade but last year I quit because it wasn’t working. And this year, I wanted to have a last season of basketball and experience it here and how it is in America, so I just tried out for the winter season.”
Some exchange students even try out for different sports here instead of sports that they have played their entire lives. Rebecca Paulus, visiting from Germany, explained, “I’ve never done gymnastics before. I did competitive cheer in Germany and wanted to do competitive cheer here too, but they did not let me join the fall season, because I missed tryouts by one week, because I arrived here two days before school started. I did try out for winter, but I did not like it. I didn’t think it was that interesting. My friend asked me if I wanted to be on the gymnastics team because they were short of girls. There were three girls, and there needed to be four girls to compete at meets, so I joined, and it was super fun.”
While some students chose to do Woodgrove’s sports, some decided to do recreation sports. Matas Pausvaski, who tried out recreational basketball, coming from Lithuania, commented, “The seasons are already done, finished last week [February 17-21]. It was about a month, we got eight games total. We made the semifinals. And we were three to five for the regular season.”
In some countries, there are no school sports and only club sports. Paulus claimed, “It’s not a thing in Germany. No one does sports for their school. Everyone goes to clubs outside of school. I think it’s really fun that school sports are such a big thing here.” Woodgrove is happy to have multiple exchange students competing in sports either at the school or a club sport. Woodgrove will continue to welcome any exchange students in the nearby or faraway future with welcome arms as it has for the past 15 years.