After two weeks with Naperville’s Ranieri family, French exchange student Marie Trub left amid tears and hugs which actually began a couple of days before her departure date.
That was especially true between Trub and Jenna Ranieri, a junior at Naperville Central High School.
Marie and Jenna hit it off from the beginning, Jenna’s mom, Bonnie Ranieri, said.
Trub visited the United States as part of a spring break exchange program through Share America, an Aurora-based company that organizes exchange programs for French and Spanish students with families in the United States and vice versa.
This year, 19 students from the same school in France along with two teachers “shadowed” students at Naperville Central for two weeks. The exchange students attended school three days per week. The other two days, the visiting students took in area landmarks.
“We had a lot of conversations about what is different and similar between her life and our lives,” Bonnie Ranieri said.
The contrast between life in the Chicago suburbs and a small town in France were apparent. Trub lives in a small town near the Belgian border and attends a small, private school. In contrast, Jenna attends Naperville Central which has thousands of students and offers a wide variety of extracurricular activities.
Marie is fluent in four languages and walks to most places, Ranieri said.
“Here you need a car to get almost anywhere,” she said.
It also was interesting to Marie that Jenna has access to a car and could drive herself, she added. In France you must be 18 years old to drive.
Last year, Jenna was able to stay with a family in a suburb of Paris over spring break. Next year, Jenna hopes to visit Marie’s family in France making it a true “exchange,” Ranieri said.
This summer, the Ranieri family will be hosting another French student, this time a boy named Camille.
Since Jenna is involved with theatre, her family was matched with a student who is in involved in musical theatre and dance, Ranieri said.
Meg Stromberg, president of Share America, said she founded the organization in 2002 after her family was a host family for exchange students.
“I became really passionate about the idea,” she added.
Working with two partner organizations in France and Spain, Share America currently is seeking host families for its upcoming summer exchange programs.
The summer programs consist of three separate exchange programs for both French and Spanish students to visit Chicago area families.
Stromberg stressed that expectations for participating families are simple — to provide local transportation and a bed.
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Families are encouraged to act normally and go about their everyday life, she added. The student becomes part of the family participating in chores and doing normal things, group officials said.
“We take the exchange students on excursions,” Stromberg said.
Since the time commitment is relatively short, the program gives students and families a taste of what hosting a student would be like on a more long-term basis, Stromberg added.
“Our goal to establish international friends and connections,” she said.
Cathy Janek is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Share America
French programs: June 14-July 6, July 6-July 26 and July 26-Aug. 16.
Spanish programs: June 26-July 23, July 26-Aug. 15 and July 24-Aug. 20.
For more information about hosting an exchange student, contact Meg Stromberg, president, Share America International Exchange, 630-664-9108, [email protected] or www.Share-America.org