Around mid-August, 12th grade student Sander Nygaard arrived in the United States from Norway to spend the school year with Gary Coller in West Lawn. He is currently one of three international exchange students staying in the area placed by Hamburg area resident Sheryle Delewski, who is an international exchange coordinator with EF High School Exchange Year.
“I have some friends from other states so I just thought ‘why not?’ I asked my parents and they said ‘yes,’ so here I am,” said Nygaard on why he decided to take part in the program.
In just the first few months, the 17-year-old has been able to point out many differences between Norway and the United States. Surprisingly, he came into the experience without any expectations and has a laid-back attitude for his stay.
“I just go with the flow,” he said. “When you’re an exchange student you can’t have expectations because you don’t know how it will be. If you have expectations it may either ruin your year or not. I didn’t think anything about it before I got here.”
As expected, there have been quite a few differences that Nygaard has observed and experienced during his stay. Politics is an area that he is passionate about and he has learned that taxes are not seen very favorably here as opposed to how he views them based on the system in Norway. He was able to participate in the “Senator for a Day” program with Senator David Argall which he enjoyed and would like to see more of the inner-workings of the political system if he gets the chance.
School is another area that he has noticed many differences. At times the differences have led to some frustration for the mature teenager.
“The parents are more overprotective,” he observed, which is also evident in how the students are treated during the school days as well.
Some examples are having to stay in the lunch room until the end of the period even if he only wanted to get a head start to make his class on time, having to ask and receive permission to use the bathroom during class and the blocking of certain internet sites at school which he noticed since he uses a number of different websites to conduct research for school papers.
“It’s about common sense,” said Nygaard. “If you have common sense you’re not going to break the rules. And if you don’t break the rules there’s not a problem.”
That trust also goes for outside of the classroom.
“In Norway, we love the outdoors,” he explained. “We go fishing, cross country skiing and alpine skiing in the summer and go on mountain hikes. So, when I go here I was thinking ‘you need a license for fishing?'”
He expanded on that by explaining that if he wanted to rent a cabin in Norway, he would be given the key to the cabin and asked to write his name and information down. Then he would be expected to clean the cabin when he was done and receive the bill later that month for his stay. A much different practice than here.
Luckily for Nygaard, his host parent Coller noticed how mature he was from the beginning.
“He came across as someone from the start who has voluntarily set his own boundaries and for the most part followed them,” said Coller, a retired school teacher. “I would have killed to have students like that where I taught because they would have forced me to be a better teacher.”
The two have engaged in many intelligent conversations that show a mature knowledge of things according to Coller. From their interactions, it seems that Coller is also getting a different perspective in a similar way as Nygaard.
When asked if he would recommend the program to other students, Nygaard responded, “Depending on how tolerant the student is. [As well as] how adaptable the student is, their ability to oversee small things, the idea of understanding how things work in a way of how to live with another person.”
The other two exchange students will be featured in upcoming Hamburg Area Item articles as well.
To learn more about hosting an exchange student, visit http://www.efexchangeyear.org and also contact Sheryle Delewski at 610-562-8801 to speak first hand with the local coordinator.
