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Exchange student finds out about life in Sylva
By Justin Goble
A student from Ecuador recently got to see what life is like in Western North Carolina.
Juan Escorza completed a yearlong Jackson County stay this month as part of an exchange program offered through Rotary Club. His host parent was Charles Wolfe, president of the local Rotary chapter.
Escorza said he heard about the exchange program from his family, who urged him to take part in it. While he chose to come to the United States, he was placed with the Jackson County Rotary Club.
Jackson County Rotary Club President Charles Wolfe, left, recently housed Ecuadorian exchange student Juan Escorza, who completed a yearlong stay in Jackson County this month. During his stay, Escorza took classes at Smoky Mountain High School and went on trips along both the East and West Coasts with other exchange students. – Herald photo by Justin Goble.
“I heard about the Rotary program from my brothers,” Escorza said. “They did the exchange program a few years ago. I chose the country, and I was assigned to a region.”
“They usually put them in regions whose Rotary clubs are requesting exchange students,” Wolfe said.
Housing students is nothing new for Wolfe. Though the time they spend in the country is short, it impacts both the student and the host family in big ways.
“Juan is the fifth young person we’ve had,” Wolfe said. “We had one girl from Japan, one from Brazil and two from Lithuania. The girl from Japan became like one of our daughters. Maybe we are a way station for exchange students.”
Both Wolfe and Escorza said they had to make changes to accommodate the situation. Since all of his children had moved out of the house, Wolfe said he and his wife, Wanda, had to get used to having someone else at home.
“We had another person to be responsible for,” Wolfe said. “We’re really busy with our work, so we don’t do a lot of cooking and things like that. My wife tried to cook more, and we tried to set up a regular meal time.”
For his part, Escorza had to get used to the fact that many parts of the U.S. aren’t as exciting as what is portrayed in the media.
“It’s totally different from what you see on television,” Escorza said. There’s not as much to do here (as in Ecuador). Back home, we can go to malls, sometimes we’d go swimming, but mostly we’d hang out. On weekends we go out at night to parties and discos.”
“Juan couldn’t drive, and that was part of the problem,” Wolfe said. “The program prohibits the exchange students from getting driver’s licenses.
As part of the program, Escorza was required to take classes at Smoky Mountain High School, though he had already graduated from high school in Ecuador.
“Juan didn’t take to school too well, and I think a lot of came from the fact that he’d already finished school in Ecuador,” Wolfe said. “People can do the program up to a year after they graduate. Juan came in just under that deadline.”
“School here is totally different,” Escorza said. “In Ecuador, we have eight classes a day, but a total of 11 throughout the week. It was more like a college schedule. Here, it was only four a day.”
Along with the differences in schedules, Escorza said the curriculum was totally new to him as well. While teachers in the United States have education degrees, many in Ecuador have completed advanced programs.
“Most of my teachers were engineers who had degrees,” he said. “We had doctors of cardiology and general medicine teaching biology. They weren’t just teachers. Few of the people there were only teachers, mainly the people who taught English, literature and grammar.”
While it was hard for Escorza to get used to classes at SMHS, he found some things he liked. Being part of the swim team was one thing he particularly enjoyed.
“I didn’t compete, but I liked swimming with the team,” Escorza said.
Another memorable part of his stay was the time he got to spend with other exchange students, Escorza said. Not only did they try to hang out while in Jackson County, the students took trips to both the East and West coasts to get a better understanding of the entire country.
“We would meet and talk about how life is here,” Escorza said. “Everything was different here for all the exchange students. They were all doing the same things and going through the same things. I really liked the trips and get-togethers we had. Going on trips was fun because I’d be with them over an extended period of time.”
“He’s seen more of the United States than a lot of citizens have,” Wolfe said. “The students went to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Niagara Falls, San Francisco and Las Vegas. They also went to the national parks, like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. I asked if he wanted to go to Disney World, and he wasn’t too interested in that.”
Aside from his time with the other exchange students, Wolfe said Escorza’s interactions were mostly family related.
“I think a lot of Juan’s interaction with other people came through our family,” Wolfe said. “My daughter and son-in-law are over at my house a lot. My wife’s parents live about a third of a mile from here. We have a daughter in Charlotte, and he’d go down with us to visit her. So there was a lot of family stuff.”
Even with the distance and the sometimes hectic schedule, Escorza said he was able to keep up with family over the Internet.
“I would use MSN Messenger (to talk with them),” he said. “Sometimes I would call them, and sometimes they would call me.”
“Communication is not nearly as difficult as it used to be,” Wolfe said. “I went to the Soviet Union in 1990, and it would take about two weeks to communicate with people back home. With all the technology, that’s an extreme we don’t have today.”
Despite the fact that his trip to America wasn’t exactly what he was expecting, Escorza said there would be a lot to miss.
“I’m going to miss the other exchange students,” Escorza said. “That, and the big cities we got to visit. I’m really going to miss my host family.”
Wolfe shared these sentiments, saying that he had many fond memories of Juan’s time here. Learning about another person and his culture helps fulfill Rotary’s mission as well, he said.
“We’re going to miss just having Juan around,” Wolfe said. “It was great just exchanging views about things, like politics and space travel. We discussed a lot of topics. We were pleased to offer him the opportunity to see the U.S.
“Our goal with Rotary is to offer friendship, goodwill, peace and understanding through contact with people from other countries,” Wolfe said. “We find that there’s lots of different kinds of people. Even so, we have a lot in common, no matter where people live. We hope to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes.”
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