Lounging on the beach, exploring cities, and seeing ancient relics in famous museums are the usual parts of most people’s travel itinerary, especially when traveling outside the country. 

But for many students across the globe, school is being added to that list. 

In increasing numbers, high school and college students are traveling to different countries to learn. They live with host families, native citizens, and experience the culture firsthand while getting their education. 

Since 1966, the year Dallastown had its first exchange student, many different students have walked the halls from around the globe.

Dallastown senior Maxwell McCormick is a to-be exchange student preparing to travel to Czechia in August for a year abroad. They’re traveling through the Youth Rotary Exchange Program for a three-year experience, which is broken into stages: The outbound stage, the inbound stage, and the rebound stage.

“An outbound is somebody who is training for their year abroad. An inbound is somebody who is currently in their exchange. And a rebound is someone reintegrating back into their home country,” McCormick explains, who is currently considered an outbound student.

The year-long outbound training experience has been based on “networking and learning your host language” according to McCormick.

“It’s mostly about learning how to portray yourself as an ambassador for your country.”  

Currently, DHS has three inbound students: list them Julien Thiry (Belgium), Julia Carramolino Benitez (Spain) and Maria Miranda Rozada (Spain). 

Julien Thiry – Belgium

Thiry’s hometown, Bertrix, is a small, woody town in Southern Belgium, comparable to York, but Thiry says it’s smaller, more wild, and surrounded by forests. “Also, the houses look more old in Belgium,” he adds.

Before coming to York, Thiry traveled, mountain biked, did judo, and skied. Here, he plays tennis and talks a lot about how sports work differently in Belgium. There, sports are only played through clubs, not school. 

“I love the sport with school, in Belgium it’s only in clubs.” 

Here at DHS, Thiry enjoyed anatomy, woods, and forensics class and liked having Mr. Hare, Mr. Koons, and Mr. Gould.

“The best part here is meet people and enjoy school activities,” he says.

Being far from home is hard, and Thiry says the worst part is being away from friends and missing events happening in Belgium. 

“The easiest way to not feel far from home is just to be busy all time.”

He highlights other differences between how Dallastown runs versus how his school in Belgium does.

“We don’t have to move to a class to another, the teachers move. And for lunch we have more time so I have the time to go out eat somewhere or at home,” he says. 

So far, he says, other than missing friends, the worst part about living in York is the lack of public transportation, something Belgium has plenty of. 

When Thiry first came to DHS, he faced his biggest challenge: meeting new people. “I never switched school so I always knew some people wherever I go,” he said, but he loved meeting people and making friends.

However, he liked switching host families. Since arriving, he’s had three different host families, one for each trimester. He loved each of them, but enjoyed being able to switch to meet more people. 

Looking forward, Thiry is excited to graduate, go to prom, and will travel to the US West Coast with other exchange students. Once back in Belgium, he plans to study bioengineering.

When asked if he’d recommend doing an exchange program to other students, his response was simple:

“I would recommend to do an exchange year at 100%.”

Thiry talked of how it helps students mature, become more outgoing, and more open, but wouldn’t recommend it to people who are shy talking to others considering it’s the biggest part of the program. 

Julia Carramolino Benitez – Spain

Also a Senior inbound student is Julia Carramolino Benitez. She’s a 16 year old student from Spain on the tennis team who’s hometown is quite different from York and Bertrix.

“I am from Madrid, the capital of Spain,” Carramolino Benitez says.

“Madrid is a big city but everything is close to each other…I live surrounded by tall buildings, city noise and people who are always in a hurry.”

Other than the area being different, her old school and Dallastown are very different. Like Thiry’s Belgian school, teachers switch classrooms rather than students, and Carramolino Benitez had also never switched schools, but the differences don’t stop there.

“I have been going to the same school in Spain since I was 6 months old…It is a smaller school than this one and the teachers help us a lot because they know us since we were babies.”

Adapting to the new environment was her biggest challenge.

“The way the teachers teach, the way of doing work or projects, the way of learning is totally different,” she says, but she enjoys some of the differences. 

“The best part of being here is the opportunity to meet so many people thanks to the sports, clubs, classes… here there is a lot of social life related to school, the biggest part of a teenager’s life is school.” 

She said before ever starting her exchange program, she and her parents always knew she’d come to US to study.

“When they told me it was time, of course I accepted with great excitement.”

Carramolino Benitez went through a different company than McCormick and Thiry are. She traveled through a private company Ayusa based in Spain that worked with an American company to organize her experience and manage paperwork. 

Because of the different program, Carramolino Benitez has only had one host family, which she’s loved.

“They included me as a member of their family, which meant having the same rules and responsibilities as their children,” she said when describing her host family. She emphasized that good communication and trust was the key to feeling comfortable there. 

Whenever Carramolino Benitez misses home, she likes bringing a bit of Spain to her. She facetimes her family everyday, cooks Spanish foods, and does other things she did back in Spain to help her fully enjoy her 10-month experience here.

Her program is nearly over, but her last two months here are packed full.

“I have several trips planned for these months, with my host family, with my boyfriend and in June my family is coming from Spain. Plus prom and graduation.”

Once she’s back in Spain, she wants to take more trips, as she’s an avid traveler and has been throughout Europe, and wants to soak up the Spain she’s missed. 

Although their experience has been different in many ways, Thiry and Carramolino Benitez share one more thing: their simple response when asked if they’d recommend a foreign exchange program to other students.

“Yes, 100%,” she says, and adds that it students mature and learn more about themselves. “I have met incredible people and just for that it is worth it.”

Maria Miranda Rozada – Spain

Dallstown’s last foreign exchange student, also a Senior from Spain, is Maria Miranda Rozada. She’s 15 years old, loves volleyball, and has traveled a lot in her life, both in and out of Spain. Here at DHS, she’s enjoyed most of her classes, but especially the business and sports classes she’s taken.

Her hometown, Oviedo, is “a very natural city, with large forests, rivers and beaches, it is very different from PA,” she says. Oviedo is about a four hour drive from Madrid, Carramolino Benitez’s hometown.

Similar to Carramolino Benitez and Thiry, Miranda Rozada’s teachers in Spain switch rooms instead of students. She also says the level of difficulty is different between the two schools.

“School in Spain is much more difficult, you have to study a lot and everything is based on exams,” she says, and adds that the biggest challenge she’s faced here has been perfecting her English, which this experience has helped.

Originally, Miranda Rozada decided to participate in an exchange program because she wanted to expand her knowledge by learning another language, experiencing an unfamiliar culture, and meeting new people.

“My experience has been a lot of fun and I am learning a lot. I did not have as much knowledge as I do now.”

Part of her learning experience has been learning to live with her host family. She’s only had one, and says the experience has been great.

“It’s been very nice and fun, I have been lucky to have a good family where I feel comfortable and myself, I thank them very much for taking me in.”

Unexpected to her, she hasn’t been as homesick as she thought she’d be.

“I am handling it quite well, better than I expected even though sometimes I miss my family,” she says.

Like the other exchange students here, Miranda Rozada also recommends to other students to go on an exchange.

“I encourage everyone who can afford it to do this experience.”

This nontraditional way of learning has taught her many lessons in and out of school.

“You learn a lot as a person apart from languages.”

The exchange experience Thiry, Carramolino Benitez, and Miranda Rozada went through what could be considered transformative, extremely educational, and a one-in-a-lifetime trip that they’d recommend to students.

As each of their programs come to an end and they prepare to return to their home countries, DHS prepares for the coming year, and of course, a coming group of exchange students ready to learn.