Our foreign exchange program provides students exposure to the diversity and wide variety of the many different cultures within the community. The difference between the lives and circumstances for students regularly attending Cypress Ranch versus students who have come to study abroad are significant.

Sophomore Chalisa Sukhahuta, a first year foreign exchange student from Thailand received a scholarship to be part of this opportunity.

Sukhahuta shared that one of the differences between Cypress Ranch and the high school she attended in Thailand is that instead of the students changing class rooms each period the Thai teachers move to the classrooms each time the subject changes.

“The teachers are kind and helpful and the students are nice,” Sukhahuta said about her first few weeks as a Mustang.

Another cultural difference Sukhahuta noticed is that unlike in Thailand, there is more opportunity to spend time with family. Whether the school system in Thailand is more rigorous or Sukhahuta wanted to focus on schoolwork before coming to the U.S., her hard work obviously paid off after receiving a scholarship. Sukhahuta said that her high grades in English class played an important role in her being able to come to America.

While Sukhahuta is enjoying her time at Cypress Ranch, she shared that “to communicate with other people has been the hardest part.”

Jaime Gomez, a first year foreign exchange student from Spain, speaks about his experience in America mentioning that he would like to come back next year.

Gomez had an agency organize his travel to America. In order to become accepted into the program Gomez was required to write a letter to an American family, applying for temporary residency. A family then accepted his letter and chose him to come stay with them as a host family.

“I wanted to learn English and I love the United States so I said to my parents that I wanted to go for one year,” Gomez said. When Gomez spoke about his family’s opinion on him leaving Spain for the year, he said his family misses him but believes that studying abroad is a valuable opportunity to learn English and meet new people.

Gomez went into detail about speaking Spanish as a first language and says that since he has learned English, it has not been too difficult for him to communicate with people. Since the English in Spain is not as advanced and proper,  Gomez had a private tutor that helped him in English prior to arriving in the United States.

Gomez shares that he has learned more in the English language, however, there are still things he does not understand.

Other than beginning at a different time a typical school day in Spain is similar to one at Cypress Ranch.

“The school in Spain is like here, you have a lot of subjects,” Gomez said. “Like in mathematics, you have Algebra, Calculus, and Trigonometry and in Spain we have the same mathematics subjects.”

Setting aside all differences between the two societies, Gomez said that he enjoys the people, the school and the culture here. “The program is a positive experience for the students,” Gomez said.

Although the school is in a suburban area, Cypress Ranch has an extremely diverse community due to the abundance of foreign exchange students who have traveled from all across the world to study here.