Devin & Dawn Mennen host their first exchange student | News, Sports, Jobs

Dawn and Devin Mennen (above left and right) welcome exchange student Aroa Acicolla Rubio (above center) at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport on Aug. 16. Rubio, who hails from Madrid, Spain, is one of two foreign exchange students who will be attending Blue Earth Area for the 2025-26 school year.

For first-time exchange student hosts Dawn and Devin Mennen, it took hosting someone else’s exchange student to realize that they might want to do it themselves.

“Our friend Linda Larson was the host for one of the Blue Earth Area exchange students, Valeria Benayas, last year, and Valeria came over to stay with us for a week during her time with the exchange program,” Dawn recalls. “She was incredibly sweet and kind, and we really enjoyed having her here. We decided on the spot that we wanted to host a student of our own.”

Now, the Mennens are the proud host family for 2026 exchange student Aroa Acicolla Rubio, from Madrid, Spain, who will be attending BEA as a junior. She arrived in Minnesota on Aug. 16, and will be staying with the Mennens for the full 2025-26 school year.

“I’ve dreamed about doing an exchange program since I was around seven years old,” Rubio comments. “I fell in love with American culture, and I’ve always wanted to see what it was like to live here.”

Rubio’s arrival in the U.S. didn’t start in Minnesota, however; instead, her exchange program, Get Ready, had an orientation day to prepare its students for the program when they arrived in New York City.

“I arrived for orientation with my fellow exchange students from Spain on Aug. 13, then flew from New York to Minnesota,” Rubio explains. “I was advised not to treat this program like it’s an American movie – instead, I should keep my expectations low, and my mind open.”

Now that she’s settled in to student life at BEA, Rubio has found a good group of friends and joined a few activities, including cheerleading and HOSA – Future Health Professionals.

“I actually want to go to college to become an oncologist, so HOSA was a natural fit for me,” Rubio shares. “I’m excited to get to know the other students in the program.”

Rubio also says she’s enjoying her classes at BEA thus far, noting that the way classes are taught here are very different from those back home in Spain.

“I’m enjoying my classes, and I like the school a lot,” Rubio remarks. “Classes here have a lot more homework, but they also focus a lot more on showing what you’ve learned. Classes in Spain are a lot more focused on the theory side of things, and there’s a lot more tests and exams.”

Interestingly, while Rubio has been studying English for over 10 years, she faced an unexpected language hurdle when coming to the U.S. – the difference between British English and American English.

“I’ve been learning English for a while now, but I was specifically taught British English in school,” Rubio explains. “There are a lot of phrases and slang terms here in America that I didn’t know before I came here, and now I’m trying to learn them all.”

“I’m glad that Aroa has been stopping me to ask what all of these new sayings and terms mean – I would have never realized that I was saying something unusual unless she pointed it out,” Dawn adds.

Outside of her education, Rubio has been doing a lot of traveling with her host family, and the Mennens already have several more trips planned for their exchange student as the seasons change.

“We’ve already done a visit to the Fairmont Raceway, and we also went to the Minnesota State Fair and a few of the smaller county fairs, such as the Clay County Fair down in Iowa,” Devin shares. “We’re planning to attend a hockey game at some point this winter, but the big trip we have planned is a trip out to the Black Hills in the Dakotas. We actually skipped our yearly trip to Sturgis to make sure that Aroa gets to have a good experience there.”

All of this traveling has led Rubio to experience a lot of new things, including trying cheese curds for the first time and going up in the Space Tower at the state fair. However, there have also been some things that she didn’t enjoy.

“The school buses here suck,” Rubio remarked. “They’re very different from the ones we have in Spain, and always crowded. I don’t like them at all.”

Rubio also got a chance to experience what colleges in the U.S. were like, taking a trip along with her fellow BEA juniors to Mankato State University to attend the Education Fair on Sept. 29.

“Colleges here look a lot newer than the ones back in Spain,” Rubio explains. “I was very surprised to see all of the fast food restaurants in their cafeteria, too.”

Overall, though, both Rubio and the Mennens have been enjoying their time together as part of the exchange program, and the Mennens in particular had some high praise for their exchange student.

“Aroa is a real breath of fresh air in the house,” Dawn shares. “I have two adult daughters, whom Aroa has met, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had any kids around. It’s really nice to have a teenager in the house again, and she’s been very open-minded about everything we’ve done together.”

When asked if she would recommend joining the exchange program to her peers, Rubio’s answer was a resounding yes, and both Dawn and Devin added that they would recommend it as well.

“My piece of advice to exchange students is to say yes to everything,” Rubio says. “You’ll get to experience so much more of the world that way. You should also definitely join clubs and sports, as it’s a good way to make new friends.”

“My advice to parents who want to join the exchange program as host families is to just do it, because it’s so much fun,” Dawn adds. “You’ll learn so much from your students, and they’ll learn a lot from you, too.”