Plum High School is hosting exchange students from Hungary, Italy and Spain this school year.
Angela Malanga, from Italy, and Zalan Negele, from Hungary, are seniors, while Miguel Iglesia Lazaro, from Spain, is a junior. They are in Plum through the district’s partnership with EF High School Exchange Year, a nonprofit based in Denver that has placed exchange students at high schools since 1979.
“Our students go out of their way to make the foreign exchange students’ experience the best it can be,” said Kerry Plesco, a counselor at Plum High School.
“Having foreign exchange students at Plum Senior High School is a wonderful thing,” she said. “The student body benefits from learning about other cultures. Students are able to learn and to relate to people who may have had an upbringing different from their own. Students learn to communicate and connect with these students and it is awesome to see.”
Malanga said her favorite things about being in the U.S. are trying new food and seeing new places with her host family and friends she has made in school.
“I feel so lucky about having them and being able to experience an American high school, which is very different from the Italian one,” she said. “I love American people too, they smile every time and they have all been so nice to me, making me feel at home.”
Lazaro said Plum’s students and teachers “are very friendly and help you with whatever you need.”
Negele enjoyed the football games.
“It’s a lot of fun to stay in the student section and cheer for the football team. That mood is pretty awesome,” he said. “Secondly, I went to the homecoming with my friends. I liked to dress up into elegant clothes and dance to good music.”
He also has been to some car shows with his host family.
“I like cars and it was good to see a lot of cool American cars,” he said.
