Rileigh Thomas
Every year, Green Mountain Union High School partners with the Chester Rotary Club to welcome a foreign exchange student into our school and local community. This exchange benefits the community tremendously, as students have the opportunity to learn about various aspects of a new culture, and explore what parts of their own culture they value and would like to share with someone else. Learning to communicate and share between cultures is absolutely integral when looking to enter the global community after high school.
In the past, GM has hosted students from France, Brazil, the Ukraine, Mongolia, and Macedonia. This year, we were extraordinarily lucky to welcome Amrita Deviayu Tunjungbiru, better known as Tunjung, from Indonesia into our school! Tunjung is 17 years old, and has been taking courses as a high school senior. She came to Vermont in August, and has spent the past seven months adjusting to our Vermont way of life, which is entirely different from her city life back home! Tunjung explained that, “I wanted to do an exchange because I wanted to experience something different from my country, and I wanted to be out of my comfort zone,” she’s also hoping to attend college in the United States and was looking to gain some cultural experience beforehand.
However, Tunjung had no idea she would be spending the year in a rural Vermont town: in fact, she had never heard of the state of Vermont before the Rotary gave her details of her exchange. After doing some research, she explained that she came to Vermont anticipating a beautiful fall season, lots of ski areas, and for Vermonters to be somewhat rude and individualist. After spending months here, she has come to the conclusion that the first two were certainly true, but she was wrong about the latter, proclaiming, “Vermont people are actually really nice to me!”
Unfortunately, Tunjung has had to overcome an abundance of obstacles during her exchange. For the first four months, Tunjung stayed with a single woman 30 minutes outside of town. This made it difficult to become involved in activities outside of school and to see friends on the weekends. Due to an accident impairing her host moms health, Tunjung had to leave the home. She stayed with four other families until finally finding her second home, where she has spent the last few months. To many, these situations may have caused tremendous stress, however, Tunjung expressed only gratitude, explaining, “if it wasn’t for her giving me a house to stay in, I couldn’t have come to the USA.”
Even with these complications, Tunjung has truly found her place in the GM school community. She has participated in cheer-leading, the fall play, the spring musical, and NHS’ cupcake wars! She explained that the friends she has made here have made her exchange unforgettable… as well as Vermont’s sweet maple syrup! In only a few short months, Tunjung will return home and be reunited with her friends, family, and flavorful Indonesian cuisine (something she has truly missed). Thinking towards the end of her exchange brought mixed emotions, “I’m excited to see my family and my friends again, but I’m sad because I'll be leaving part of my life here.”
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