BHS honored by AFS for its work with exchange students
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
Since Burlington High School began hosting American Field Service – or AFS – foreign exchange students in the 1950s, the school has developed a strong tradition.
That continued this year – and the district was honored by being named an AFS-USA Top School. Seven schools in Wisconsin earned the honor, including Burlington.
The other six were Arrowhead, Marshfield, Wausau West, Washburn, South Milwaukee and Plymouth. It was the inaugural year for the award.
BHS coordinator Nancy Satola nominated the school for the award, and then judges picked the top 100 schools.
“We have been a hosting school for however many years that’s been,” Satola said. “We typically host 2-3 students a year.”
Burlington’s capsule on the awards list read as follows:
“Burlington High School has hosted almost continuously since the late 1950s and traditionally sends one student a year. Six years ago, the first hosted AFS student donated money for a mural depicting the values of an exchange experience – the students hosted that year became models for that mural. In 2012, the school accepted without hesitation a Sponsored Programs student with spina bifida; the specialists began to take amazingly swift action to accommodate the student’s needs before she ever entered the building. The School Board also met in special session in 2012 to reconsider and approve two students above the original number initially approved, thus allowing a family to double host.”
However the wording, the BHS AFS Class of 2013 was considered one of the best to come through the program in a very long time.
All five students – Mickael Pauly (Belgium), Anna Kozlova (Russia), Louise Schmidt (Switzerland), Jorge Escobar (Paraguay) and Lintang Anindyajati (Indonesia) – were excellent students and highly involved in the school community.
Pauly made headlines in June by not only qualifying for the WIAA Division 1 state track and field meet, but setting a new school record there and registering a pair of top 10 finishes in the 800-meter run.
“This group of kids has been involved, active,” Satola said. “They have been fabulous ambassadors for their countries.
“Every one of them has made the most of their experience here,” she added. “They’ve got all sorts of internal things they’ve learned about themselves, and things they’re ready to move on and share with their countries.”
Pauly’s was not the only success story. Having never performed on stage before, Escobar found he had a talent for singing. He was accepted into the school’s B*Jazzled show choir, and also performed in the spring show “Les Miserables.”
“I never tried music,” he said. “I kind of like to sing.”
Schmidt, meanwhile, found herself joining first in cross country, then cross country skiing and the track and field team.
After-school activities and organized high school sports are reasonably unique to the United States, so Schmidt and the others got a chance to be involved in activities not available in their home countries.
Also, the exchange students commented that course selection opportunities are limited in their home countries, and they can only take rigidly academic classes. Coming to BHS, they got a chance to try a little bit of everything.
Not, of course, that they took easy classes. Kozlova, who left before BHS commencement exercises this month, took AP calculus and AP physics – and actually completed the calculus placement exam before returning home.
She was part of the Future Leaders Exchange program as well, and returned home to Russia to take exams.
As a whole, the five students had the experience of a lifetime.
“It was a great experience,” Schmidt said. “It was something that really opens your mind.”
Added Anindyajati, “After I have, like, this whole year, it’s changed a lot. I’ve been more independent, more open minded.”
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