It’s not unusual to start a new school year with a few new faces in the halls . . . but it is unusual when one new face traveled over 4000 miles to be here.

That new face is Chiara Schley, a foreign exchange student at Beaver Area High School. Chiara is a junior and is from Stuttgart, Germany.

Surprisingly, Chiara enjoys the food in America so far; “the food is good, but sometimes it’s too sweet. My host mom is a really good cook and cooks Polish cuisine from time to time.”

She’s also found that Americans are very friendly people (keep it up folks!) despite visiting New York with New Yorkers’ notorious attitude. The Big Apple isn’t Chiara’s only pit stop though; she has visited Youngstown, Ohio and is planning on going to Hawaii and Florida later this school year.

But even with Chiara’s newfound appreciation for America, there are things she misses.

“I do miss my family and friends, but I feel like that’s normal. And in America everything is so big and overwhelming. Just picking out a drink at Starbucks is hard; in Germany, the menu doesn’t change throughout the seasons, so here I have to keep up with what’s available,” Chiara said.

Although for Chiara one perk about America is that school is much easier than in Germany.

“In Germany, we have 6-8 hour finals for each subject, and school is a lot less fun than here. The teachers are also not as friendly as teachers in America,” she explained.

Even though Chiara says school is more fun here, that doesn’t mean they don’t have fun school traditions in Germany. She says that every year in the summer (they end school in July) there is a special soccer game that is seniors vs. teachers. All of the other spectators are underclassmen (grades 5-11) and often are the butt of the seniors’ pranks like getting water poured on them.

In America, Chiara is excited to finally experience the quintessential American high school events—for example, prom!

“I think prom will be a big and fun event,” she said.

And she’s already experienced some other school spirit events: “I’ve been to some of the football games and they’re fun; I haven’t been to many though. I thought the pep rally was fun to watch.”

Chiara is also going to be participating in swimming for the 2024-25 season. In Germany she not only swims but frequently skis as a hobby.

And as many other countries (besides America) do, in Germany they put an emphasis on learning a second language. Chiara says she has been learning English since the fifth grade, so the language barrier hasn’t been a huge issue for her.

One thing that Chiara does find odd about America is the fact that most of us can drive in high school. In Germany, the driving age is 18, so being able to drive yourself places in high school is unheard of. Instead, in Germany, many people use public transportation to get to places including school. She thought that the notorious yellow school buses we have in America were really cool.

Some other fun facts about Chiara are that she is an only child, she used to be a gymnast, and she’s taken 5 years of Latin.

Be sure to give Chiara a warm welcome to Beaver Area High School and look out for our next foreign exchange student interview in an upcoming ECHO!