9/17/2007 - Apponequet hosts three exchange students this year
by Lauren Daley
Standard-Times staff writer
South Coast Today
Apponequet Regional High School in Lakeville reinstated its exchange program this year, after a one-year hiatus to revamp the school’s policy. Apponequet welcomes three foreign students:
Marieka Werner, 17, of Germany, Federico Bus (pronounced Boos), 17, of Italy, and Claudia Ortiz Benavidez, 16, of Copiapo, Chile.
“This is a ‘win-win’ situation for all involved,” said Superintendent of Freetown/Lakeville Schools Dr. Stephen J. Furtado.
Apponeuqet now uses AFS Intercultural Programs — formerly the American Field Service — an international exchange program with more than 11,000 students, young adults and teachers traveling each year to more than 50 countries.
“I hope that the Apponequet students experience an appreciation for other cultures, as well as a better understanding that we are a global society; I hope that the foreign exchange students leave with a respect for other cultures,” Dr. Furtado said.
Marie Hartley, the French teacher and international student adviser at Apponequet, is hosting a student of her own this year — Barbora Kosudova, 16, of Slovakia, who will attend Old Rochester Regional High School.
“For the students coming here, they hopefully gain appreciation for American customs. I’m sure it changes their opinion of what they think ‘American’ is,” Ms. Hartley said.
“Anytime you go someplace it changes you somehow. Really, the whole purpose of AFS was to bring peace one person at a time; that if you live in another culture and are part of it for a year, you have another opinion of it.”
For more information, visit www.afs.org/usa.
To get involved with the program next year, call Marie Hartley at (508) 947-2660.
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