The Exchange Program brings students into our school from other countries, so they can experience school at CK and in the United States. There are currently four students in our school from different countries– Turkey, Spain, Italy, and Japan.

Everyone who decides to be a part of this program always has a reason. Ata Celik, who is from Turkey, explained: “I wanted to have an experience, it is my dream to go into another country and be in another culture.” Celik says that the people are nice here and that they have been greeting him, he also says that he also likes school here better than where he is from.

“Here the school days are longer, like in Italy we go to school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., so then we have the whole afternoon to study and do homework,” Anna Scriattoli, who is from a small city in Italy, describes how some of her school life was back in Italy. By getting to know these students others start to learn about how different their school life is compared to ours, Kina Asano, who is from Japan, explains that they had longer days at her school back in Japan and that at the end of the school day they would have to stay for a little while after to help clean up the school. Celik explains to me that back at his school back in Turkey they had 10 courses a day and their school days went from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Classes are something that are quite different as well. In Turkey the students were not aloud to pick their own classes.

The Exchange Program gives students the opportunity to experience a new different culture. Along with talking about the experience they are gaining, most of the exchange students have also described the school as looking like it is from the movies they have seen. They all seem to agree that this program is a great experience to have and they would recommend it to others!