Clover Hill High School celebrates their 26th year anniversary of hosting Japanese exchange students from Municipal Urawa High School.
In 1999, the local government of Saitama, Japan wanted to start an exchange program. At the time Clover Hill had a Japanese language program, and this had interested the government ultimately choosing CHHS as their sister school, and the tradition has been going on since.
English Dual Enrollment College Comp teacher, Katie Gladstone Miller, is the main coordinator for the Japanese exchange program. Gladstone Miller says her favorite part of the program is keeping the exchange tradition alive and sharing cultural traditions with each other.
“[My favorite part of the program is” continuing to see the exchange still going on, but it’s also getting to go there and experience the school, and then visiting tokyo and see the amazing things that they have culturally, and how different it is,” Gladstone Miller said.
The Japanese students visited America for a week to experience school in America from Mar. 17-24. While students at the Hill were still in school, the Japanese students were on break. In return, Clover Hill students have the opportunity to go to Japan as well in May to see how the school life is there.
“It is kind of a mix between getting to see the students out of their element and learning about each other, both when we come here and when we go there,”Gladstone Miller said.
Junior Mezzie Goldstien participated in hosting Yu, one of the Japanese exchange students that came this year. Yu said that what she finds most interesting is how students switch to different classes for each subject.
“Most classes are held in one classroom, your classmates are the same in every class,” Yu said.
What had interested Yu coming to America, was that she has been studying the English language for many years, and those classes sparked her desire to experience the life of an American student. In addition, she was fascinated by American culture, especially classic foods, leisure, and nature.
“I wanted to try american dishes, and the nature is beautiful around here.” Yu said.
Goldstien says she hosted this year to help her get an understanding of the culture.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, so having an exchange student helps me learn a little bit more about the culture,” Goldstien said.
Senior Everett Aileo got to host another exchange student, Haruki, who was led to America out of curiosity since he eventually hopes to find a job here in the future. Back in Japan, Haruki plays guitar in his school’s music club where he has gotten to perform live concerts for his school.
One class that Haruki found interesting was government. During his trip he visited the Richmond Capitol, record stores, and even experienced the large American stores and proportions.
Aileo decided he wanted to host a student because he thought it would be interesting to show someone else America and things that he had already seen. In addition, his mother also hosted a Japanese exchange student when she was still in school.
“My mother had a Japanese exchange student when she was in middle school, so my parents were open to the idea,” Aileo said.
With the help of sponsors from the local government of Saitama, the exchange students work on a project about anything relating to the area of Richmond or about America in general. Once they go back to Japan, the students have to make presentations for their government to show off what they learned during their trip.
Gladstone Miller says that anyone who is interested in hosting Japanese exchange students next year should be listening to announcements around August and September.
“If anyone is interested in hosting or going to Japan next year, then they should keep an ear out in August and September on the announcements because we will announce the interest meeting at that time,” Gladstone Miller said.
