WJ hosted 30 students and staff members from Fredricia High School in Denmark on Friday, Sept. 13. The students were paired with WJ student ambassadors during periods three through six.
Throughout the day the Danish students were able to learn about schools in America.
“Something that stands out to me is at my school, we attend the same classes with the same classmates,” Danish student Kaya Hamsen said. “We also don’t have hall passes and we only have four periods a day.”
Although the change is big, some of the students said they preferred the WJ environment over theirs.
“The people here are nice but it is very different here than it is in Denmark,” Danish student Roar Bendix said. “The people here are more active and talkative.”
Both the Danish students and student ambassadors said they enjoyed the experience.
“The most rewarding part of the experience for me was probably making friends with them,” junior Mya Andriamalala said. “I was able to get all of their Instagrams and still keep in touch with them and it felt wholesome and fun to have friends from a completely different part of the world.”
During first period, all the student ambassadors were able to leave classes to meet in the Commons.
“I went to the Commons during first period and sat down with a couple of my student ambassador friends,” junior Will Kreisle said. “Then some of the Danish kids came in and a couple of them sat with us. One of the Danish kids, Alex, seemed nice so I asked him to be my partner. He ended up shadowing me throughout third to sixth. Everyone in my classes loved him and talked to him.”
Some students who are not part of the ambassador program said they enjoyed the unique experience of having the visitors in their classes.
“One of the students was shadowing in one of my classes and I thought it was so cool to learn about how their school experiences were different from mine,” junior Lana Eganova said.