Submitted Photo Ricarda Hetzel (second from right) toured San Francisco with her host family Tori, Jackie, Lindsey and Shawna Rubottom.	Submitted Photo Exchange student Frank Wilberg (second from left) is surrounded by his host family, Shauna Reist, her husband Terry and son Cole.
Submitted Photo Marsha and Shannon Smith greet exchange student Janine Horn (right) as he arrives for a year’s stay.

Yosemite High School is playing host to three exchange students this year — Frank Wilberg, Ricarda Hetzel and Janine Horn, all from Germany. They arrived last fall in time to begin the school year as seniors and will walk during commencement exercises in June with the close friends they made this year. All three exchange students speak excellent English.

They come to the United States through Academic Year in America. Two years ago YHS was the host school to 11 students from three countries. Last year there were eight students from four countries.

Stephanie Samuels, exchange-student coordinator at Yosemite High School, says, “This gives Yosemite High students the opportunity to learn so much about culture and tolerance, and exchange students experience first-hand the openness of our society. There are long-term benefits at work here, especially given the current political climate.”

Ricarda Hetzel is from Eilenburg in the state of Saxony of East Germany. She had visited the United States before — St. Louis and Chicago — but just for visits. She is staying with the Rubottom family in Coarsegold. Tori, the oldest Rubottom daughter, graduates this year.

Ricarda has found that the homework is easier than at home in Germany. She will have to attend two more years at school when she returns to her homeland. She plans to further her education, probably in the subjects of computers or math.

She wanted this experience to improve her English and to become more familiar with this country. She was on the YHS cross country team and is running track, which she also does in Germany.

She has observed that most people she knows here go to church on Sunday as opposed to home. She also find it fascinating to see how we celebrate the different holidays. She was especially homesick at Christmas time. “That was a bad time,” she says.

Janine Horn

Janine Horn is from a Berlin suburb. She remembers coming one other time with her parents to Disneyworld when she was 8.

She lives with the Larry Smith family in Coarsegold. The family is enjoying the experience so much they are already picking out their student for next year.

Her host family has taken her to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Monterey, and during spring break she wants to visit Las Vegas. They take her wherever she wants to go.

Janine is a vegetarian who sometimes cooks for herself, but she finds it fun to cook for her host family, too.

She keeps in touch with her family in Germany through e-mail and a phone call every Sunday.

Janine considers the chance to learn English the least important aspect of coming here. “You find yourself,” she says. It is the first time she has been really on her own.

She finds the people more open here. “Even people who don’t know you, they are still interested in you,” she has discovered.

She also has two more years of high school in Germany after Yosemite. She wants to study languages and music in college.

Frank Wilberg

Frank Wilberg is from the small village (population 185) of Kobbeln in East Germany about 40 miles from Berlin. He has a twin brother and one older sister. He is staying with the Reist family of Coarsegold.

His highlight of the school year so far is to play on the championship YHS varsity football team. He had watched NFL football played in Europe and thought, “I’d like to try to play football.” He even got to play a couple minutes in a couple games. “It was fun,” he says. The team shouted “Frank, Frank, Frank” when he went onto the field.

He did miss the championship game because he was touring the southwestern United States at the time, but he cherishes the trophy he received at the football banquet. His host family gave him a letterman jacket on which is a patch saying, “CIF championship” on the arm. “It was a great present,” he says, with a grin.

From his first arrival in New York where the students met each other, “everybody was sincere to us.” When he came to Oakhurst, “I felt like a real American, not like a foreign exchange student. Everybody is so nice.”

He finds people here very open and they “tell you if they have some problem with you or not.” He’s surprised at how fast his days go because they are filled with so much to do. It’s hard to find time to make friends, he says. He repeats he will miss playing football.

He says he feels like he is more on his own without his own parents, but finds his experiences a good preparation for moving out of his home eventually and “manage my own life.” He welcomes the chance to experience different way of life from that in Germany.

Frank will attend two more years of school before he gives a mandatory 10 months to a year to the army. Then it will be to a university and find a job.

All three students are uncomfortable with this country’s war in Iraq.  “I don’t like it,” says Ricarda. Janine is scared because of the implications to “the whole world, not just between America and Iraq.”

Frank is also scared. “It is not only between the USA and Iraq. It is with the whole world.  I think if the USA doesn’t get Saddam fast, there will be big problems.”

Host families repeat

“Families often host successive years,” says Ms. Samuels. “It’s a natural thing to want to repeat something when you have seen the value firsthand and when you have enjoyed the experience. But the great thing is because every one is so different, you will never have the same experience twice.”

Each year she places students with families. The students in the program are from more than 25 counties, ages 15 to 18, have their own insurance and spending money. “The host family provides essentials like room and board, as well as the ingredients: love and support,” she says.

“If you would like the opportunity to learn more about another culture and make a friend for life,” says Ms. Samuels, give her a call at YHS, 683-4464, Extension 310 or at home, 643- 3608.