Year in and year out Oak Park and River Forest High School hosts the most, or nearly the most, foreign exchange students of all high schools in the Chicago area and nationwide.
This year, like most years, OPRF hosted six foreign exchange students: Nico Pardo Fleming from Chile, Lorenzo Garavaglia from Italy, Amr Nassar from Egypt, Jonathan Schmidtke from Germany, Kazuma Suzuki from Japan and Morgan Tallec from France. One thing that was unusual this year is that all the foreign exchange students at OPRF were boys. No one could remember when that last happened.
The foreign exchange students enjoyed their year at OPRF although the size of the school took some getting used to.
“I would say people are much more open here,” Tallec said. “When I came here it was very easy to make friends.”
The boys, all 17 or 18, said OPRF was a much more diverse school with far greater course offerings than what they experienced in their home countries.
“I feel like it’s nice, more opportunities,” said Suzuki, who said he has no choice in what classes to take in Japan.
The exchange students took a variety of classes, including Advanced Placement classes as well as courses in pottery, metal working and auto mechanics. For most of them the emphasis is on culture and experimentation, not just academics.
Some said that at school in their home country the same students spend all day together in the same classroom, while teachers for different subjects rotate into the classroom. That, and the smaller size of his school in Chile, makes it easier to form close friendships at school Fleming said.
“I feel like in Chile you create deeper connections, stronger bonds and here it’s harder to achieve that,” Fleming said.
The exchange students said they found relationships with teachers at OPRF different, and closer, than what they were accustomed to at home.
“They care about you mentally and physically,” Nassar said of OPRF teachers. “Here you can reach out to your teacher about anything.”
Garavaglia and Schmidtke teamed up with two other OPRF students in a business incubator class to create an artificial intelligence based cooking app called Nutriax that is designed for people on weight loss drugs. The app generates recipes based on ingredients that you have at home that will help you hit your weight loss goals. The app was recently selected as one of the top 25 student developed apps in Illinois. Schmidtke, using AI, wrote the code for the app.
“You don’t have business classes in Germany so I feel like it was American spirited and a cool class,” Schmidtke said.
In an engineering class Garavaglia worked with two other OPRF students to develop an engineering system that prevents pipes from rusting.
Despite having never played the sports before Fleming, a rugby player in Chile, joined the OPRF football and wrestling teams, mostly competing on the JV level. Schmidtke joined the cross country team and Nassar, a swimmer in Egypt, was a diver on the OPRF swim team. Suzuki played Ultimate Frisbee. Many joined clubs with Nassar participating in the Middle Eastern and North American Students (MENA) club, Student Council, the Meds club, and Key Club. Nassar also did a lot of volunteer work in the community. Lorenzo played tennis, and joined the robotics, spoken word and adventure club.
The exchange students were struck by the ethnic diversity of OPRF.
“I see people from all over the world and they’re all living in one place,” Nassar said.
It’s not easy to come into a high school as a junior or senior and break into established friend groups but all the foreign exchange students made friends although they often had to take the initiative.
“If you don’t talk to people, people don’t talk to you,” Fleming said.
Schmidtke and Suzuki lived together with the same host family but had different personalities.
“It turns out that they aren’t best of friends but like siblings they get along just fine,” said Matt Goto, their host father. “In fact they’re better than most blood siblings because they don’t fight.”
Suzuki carried an electronic dictionary with him but didn’t have to use it much after his first weeks at OPRF. All had studied English for years and also learned English from watching television, movies and social media.
The exchange students definitely noticed some cultural differences between life in their home countries and life in Oak Park. Fleming was surprised at how car dependent American teenagers are.
“People literally drive everywhere; they cannot walk, it’s crazy,” Fleming said.
Fleming said he wasn’t impressed by the teenage parties he attended noting that many of them lacked the dancing that he was used to in Chile.
“Most of the time, like 95% of them, it’s like one or two friend groups together drinking in a basement, like super boring,” Fleming said.
Like for many teenage boys interacting with girls could sometimes be baffling, especially on social media.
“Girls here are just super weird, their social interactions are just weird,” said Fleming, who did attend the Homecoming Dance with a date and went to the prom with a group. “You talk with them and it feels like interviewing them.”
Food was another adjustment. The exchange students said that American food was more processed than what they were used to in their home countries.
Fleming was the fifth foreign exchange student hosted by Tom Lesiowski and Mary Furman.
“For us it’s culturally enriching and it’s interesting,” Furman said. “They’re interesting kids.”