USC exchange students find a “home away from home” | News, Sports, Jobs

John Herman, center, and his wife Cindy, not pictured, have been hosting exchange students from all around the world through USC’s foreign exchange program for 26 years. This year, their host students are Ben Dehna, left, and Giulia Sterpa, right.

After 26 years of hosting exchange students for United South Central High School, John and Cindy Herman were finally ready to call it quits – until an email appeared in Cindy’s inbox from the school, asking families to “make someone’s Christmas” and host an exchange student for spring semester.

“I remember seeing that email appear in my inbox and thinking: here we go again!” Cindy laughed.

Now the Herman home is once again hosting two foreign exchange students for the spring semester: Giulia Sterpa (Italy) and Ben Dehna (Germany), who are the 13th and 14th exchange students that the Herman family have hosted over the years. This is the first time that the Hermans have hosted two students of different genders at the same time, as all of their previous groups of students have been the same gender.

While host families here in the States are certified through High School in the USA (HSUSA) or AFS, students abroad must take their own initiative and sign up with their own country’s foreign exchange program. For Giulia, that program was Giocamondo, while Ben signed up through USE Global.

“I first heard about the foreign exchange program at a very young age,” Giulia says. “I’ve wanted to do it for a very long time. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to join the program, and while the U.S. was my first choice, Canada was a close second.”

“My older sister did an exchange to England and really enjoyed it, and that was what inspired me to join the program as well,” Ben says. “But I didn’t want to go to the same country as her, so I chose the U.S. instead.”

Both students will attend USC through the end of spring semester, meaning they will be in Minnesota for a total of five months. Despite having only been in school for a week and a half, both students have already discovered vast differences between their schooling back home and in the States.

“In Italy, our classes are a lot longer; one to two hour periods compared to only an hour here,” Giulia says. “My school also doesn’t offer lunch – we have to bring our own from home. We also have tests almost every week, both written and oral.”

“The biggest difference between school here and in Germany is that we don’t have school sports back home,” Ben says. “You have to join a sport club on your own free time if you want to do that. We do have paid lunches at my school, but they aren’t popular, and most students choose to bring their own.”

Both students remarked that high school progression is different at home than it is in the States – in both Italy and Germany, high school is attended for five years, whereas there are only four years of high school in the U.S. This complicates matters when deciding which year exchange students will join while attending school in the U.S., as students are often “held back” to fit the U.S. standards of education. Giulia is attending USC as a senior, while Ben is attending as a junior.

“One of the best resources we have as exchange students is talking to other people who have joined the exchange program,” Ben explained. “They answer a lot of questions about what it’s like coming to the U.S., and tell us which teachers and students to look out for.”

“When you first arrive at school, you get a lot of popularity because you’re new,” Giulia added. “It’s cool to meet new people and get attention, but a lot of people put on a “fake face” and aren’t genuine about who they are. I’ve already met some people like that.”

So far, both students view their Minnesota education fondly, with Giulia in particular pointing out how much more accommodating USC is compared to her school back home.

“I like that we have time here to do our classwork in school, rather than having to do it all afterwards,” Giulia explained. “The teachers here are very kind and patient, too. I don’t leave school with anxiety, like I do back home.”

John and Cindy both agreed that a lot of pressure is put on exchange students by their peers, both at home and abroad.

“The worst part is that these students don’t get a good chance to say goodbye when their term is up,” John remarked. “Put another way, they don’t get to say goodbye to their high school friends while they’re still in high school – they have to fly home right away after the semester is over, and they don’t get a chance to experience summer break like their peers.”

John and Cindy have been hosting exchange students through USC for 26 years, providing a home away from home for 14 students from nine different countries, including Germany, Thailand, Panama, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands.

“Our first student, Jens, came to us in 1999,” John recalled. “We saw an ad in the paper looking for host families for the foreign exchange program, and I remember turning to Cindy and asking her, ‘Do you think we should do this?’ She turned around and says ‘We’ve already got nine kids – what’s one more mouth to feed?’ and we’ve just kept going ever since.”

Having had so much experience hosting students, John and Cindy are determined to help their students have the best experience they can while visiting Minnesota. They have already taken Giulia and Ben to Mankato to watch a MSU Mavericks hockey game, and plan to take both students to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater later this month to see their production of Grease.

“These kids spend a lot of time preparing for this,” Cindy says. “It’s our job to make sure that they get to do things like this and have these kinds of experiences for as long as we can.”

As for what the students themselves look forward to doing while they’re here, Giulia and Ben didn’t have a lot on their minds.

“I was really hoping to see snow,” Giulia remarked. “Back home in Italy, our average temperature this time of year is 0-2° Celsius (32-35° Fahrenheit). We almost never see snow where I live.”

“I guess I’m looking forward to going to prom, but I don’t have anyone to go with yet,” Ben admitted.

When asked what they thought about their host family, both Giulia and Ben were quick to praise the Hermans – as well as each other.

“They’re very funny, and we always have a lot to talk about,” Ben says. “It’s good to have people your age around to help you get used to a new place. There’s never a dull moment here.”

“Ben and I get along well – I like that we can talk like siblings do,” Giulia added. “He reminds me a lot of my brother back home.”

John and Cindy also relayed their gratitude for having had such good experiences with the foreign exchange program, sharing that many of their former students were still in touch with them to this day. Furthermore, their family has had the opportunity to travel abroad and spend time with their students, as well as inviting them and their families here to Minnesota to visit. Giulia and Ben both expressed that they would likely keep in touch with the Hermans once they returned home as well.

“Hosting exchange students has opened our eyes wide to the fact that who we are in the U.S. is not who the rest of the world is,” Cindy says. “I think it’s important for everyone, both the host families and the students, to have these experiences and gain that insight, so that we can all broaden our horizons and learn more about each other.”