Five Questions for our visiting Grade 10 Exchange Students

Lakefield College School’s membership in Round Square gives our students access to almost two hundred other RS Schools around the world with which to consider partnering on exchange.  With applications from current LCS Grade 9 students due, it seemed like an appropriate time to ask our two visiting exchange students to share their thoughts on the exchange experience.

 

In addition to our five newly-arrived exchange visitors from Senlis, France who are here as part of the March Break Language Exchange Program, two students have been with us since early January in the Grade 10 (Round Square) Exchange Program—they are Alexandra Attwood from St. Cyprian’s School in Cape Town, South Africa and Fabian Pohlemann from Stiftung Louisenlund in Güby, Germany.

 

We asked Alex and Fabian five questions about their own schools and their exchange experience at LCS, thus far.

 

 

 

Alexandra: I attend St. Cyprian’s School in Oranjezicht, Cape Town. We are very proud of our music, water and land sports programs, as well as our involvement in Round Square and the focus we put on the six Round Square IDEALS (Internationalism, Democracy, Environmental Stewardship, Adventure, Leadership and Service). St. Cyprian’s is a relatively large school with 900 girls, from Grades 000 (roughly the equivalent of junior kindergarten in Canada) to Grade 12.

 

Fabian:  My school, Louisenlund, is located in the very north of Germany and it is a bit like Lakefield. It is situated on a loch of the Eastern Sea and has around 440 students. The school was founded by Dr. Kurt Hahn (the German educational philosopher in whose honour Round Square, itself, was founded in 1966) and nowadays consists of two main areas. The first one is situated directly on the water and has most of the school’s buildings, such as classrooms and residential buildings. There is also a white castle in the center of everything, for which our school is famous. The second area is a small yard where the Grades 5 to 8 students live. The majority of students are boarders, because there are no bigger cities nearby. At Louisenlund, our most important programs and values are sailing, tradition and unity.

 

 

A:  I have loved my time at LCS! Everything is so different; for instance, it is the first time that I’ve experienced boarding life and the joy of having 10 minutes more sleep each day, as the dining hall, Chapel and classes are all only a 30-second walk from my residence. Then, there is the daily dose of ice cold weather to keep you on your feet!  The coldest it gets during a South African winter is about 13oC, but I quickly learned that in Canada the average winter temperature is about -15oC. Finally, I found myself in a co-ed school which I had missed—I went to a co-ed primary school before going to St Cyprians, which is all girls—and then there was discovering that school on a Saturday is a thing…

 

F:  I have really enjoyed my time here at Lakefield so far, because it has made me feel at home. I do like the snow and the low temperatures in the winter, because it usually never gets below -5°C in northern Germany. But also, the cultural diversity present at LCS is something is a major difference between our two schools.  Back home, we only have a small number of students who are not from Germany, and here there are more than forty nationalities represented. Another big difference is the amount and length of lessons. At Lakefield, it is much more relaxed and because of the longer classes, you have only half the amount of lessons that we do back home. But disregarding these facts, Louisenlund and LCS are really quite similar.

 

 

A:  I would definitely say finding a “place” in the school and developing friendships that are more than just a “hi” in the corridors, especially arriving mid-way through the school year when everyone had already gotten to know one and another.  But I can safely say that I have and continue to overcome this challenge.

 

F.   For me, the biggest challenge was finding a group of friends with which you can stick around and who accept you as you are. It is hard coming to a new school mid-term, because these groups have already been formed and you are often just “that new guy.” But that is one of the facts that make an exchange so interesting; you get to know a whole bunch of people, get in touch with them and build more connections. I feel that it has helped me to develop better social skills, because you want to have fun with the other students and create long-lasting memories. This is a big part of what makes an exchange so much fun.

 

 

A:  I have definitely become more independent and have learned things about myself that I didn’t know, for example that I have the ability to cope with pressure and think on my feet. I discovered this for the first time when taking the plane by myself and being stopped three times for not having the right documents, then having the right documents etc. I feel that my exchange has helped me to appreciate every aspect of life and to realize how lucky I am to experience something so different and educational on every level.

 

F.  See my next answer  to see how I have changed and grown because of this exchange.

 

 

A:  Yes, I would.  It is something that so few people have the chance to experience and it is an adventure that will open your mind and prepare you for a world that is so much bigger than you might have expected!

F:   I would highly recommend any sort of exchange experience to everybody.  If you’re like me, it will feel really good to just leave your normal life behind and try a lot of things you cannot do from where you come from. And as I tried to take these opportunities, I have changed throughout this whole process. It has really helped me to socialize more often and to chat more easily with people I don’t know. And it has made me grow as a person.  I have already made good memories at Lakefield, for example, from playing ice hockey on the outdoor rink in the school’s SLASH league. But that is just my point of view. You really do need to experience it for yourself, but I think you will find that an exchange really helps you to develop yourself as a person, and that is why I would encourage you to do it!