By Alexandra Madsen

Some say wherever you go Lane will find you; however, with a growing number of Lane students studying abroad, the case may now be wherever you go you will find Lane students.
It is common to find college students studying abroad, but high schools students are not as commonly found there. This, however, is changing. Students such as Nancy Marquez, Div. 481, are taking advantage of service trips and programs like AFS-USA to travel abroad. Marquez has received two fully funded trips: one to Costa Rica for service work, and one to China through AFS. During these trips she stayed with a host family and was immersed in the cultures surrounding her.
“I decided I wanted to study abroad to kind of grow,” Marquez said. “It’s important for me to see the world and understand how other things are in order to have a more global perspective in my education and future job.”
In Costa Rica, Marquez had the task of doing construction work on local schools and farming with locals. To pass time, Marquez and other students would sing pop songs like Christina Aguilera’s Ain’t No Other Man to each other in the fields.
“The experience really was life changing,” Marquez said. “I was able to live a completely different way, away from cell phones and electricity and it made me spend the day actually doing things instead of living in a virtual world.”
Not only did the trip expand Marquez’s idea of the world, it allowed her to branch out and adapt to new situations. When she first arrived in China, Marquez knew no one and had no knowledge of Chinese. She spent her days at home not doing much, until a few kids from her Chinese school invited her to hang out with them. She started going out with them every day, and finally found the experiences she was looking for out of the trip.
“My host family in China was super quiet and didn’t speak a word of English and I didn’t speak Chinese,” Marquez said. “It was basically up to me to make friends, and once I did I completely came out of my shell and had an amazing time.”
Other students have gone abroad to countries they have taken language classes in. Emily Porter, Div. 462, traveled to Spain for a service trip, and to Germany over the summer. She has been taking German for four years and decided to further her studies by traveling to Berlin.
“My favorite thing about the whole experience was the fact that people from all over the world came to the program,” Porter said. “The other thing is they didn’t discourage me from speaking. They knew I was trying and tried to help me out as much as they could.”
AFS works toward a more peaceful world by providing international and intercultural experiences through a global partnership. Students in some cases can travel abroad on a scholarship or for free by teaching English in one of the foreign countries. Knowledge of the foreign language is not required. However ASF provides basic language classes for students to adapt to their environment better.
Jezel Ott, Div. 456, was one of the students who, through AFS, traveled abroad to Thailand to teach English. The cultural barrier was significant for her since she had no knowledge of the language and teaching English was a difficult task.
“It was just really hard to communicate with people because they had no idea what I was saying,” Ott said. “I guess I managed but at times it was almost impossible.”
Most AFS programs are for five to six week periods. However, there are cases of students studying abroad for semesters or a year. Claire Ramos, Div. 472, has been attending classes in Mexico through AFS since the beginning of the school year. She decided to spend a semester studying abroad in Mexico in order to expand her knowledge of the culture.
“I chose Mexico because I’m half Mexican and growing up I never really got to experience Mexican culture,” Ramos said. “I didn’t really know the culture, the traditions and my Spanish speaking was limited. I really wanted to find out who I am and where I come from.”
The semester away from her family has been scary for her at first, but as time went on, being away from her family proved to be useful.
A particularly hard time for Ramos was her 18th birthday, a day she usually spent surrounded by family. Since she was so far away, her mother recorded herself singing Happy Birthday to Ramos. When Ramos received the recording she really felt the separation between them. Although she was not able to have her mom there, Ramos’s host mom has been a second mother to her in the time she has spent there.
“I couldn’t believe that I was turning 18 without her. It was a really hard concept for me to grasp,” Ramos said. “I guess that’s a type of independence in a sense, not having to rely on people to help you, and without people who care about you. It made me take the initiative to do things myself.”
For most of the students studying abroad, the experience has affected their future plans.
Aura Perez, Div. 464, traveled to Italy through AFS over the summer. She decided to travel to experience different perspectives in the world. She stayed with a host family and also got to travel all over the country and visit different cities. Perez’s favorite part of the trip was visiting different cities and seeing the way different people perceive the world.
During her time abroad, and through hopping from city to city, Perez realized she no longer wanted to be confined to one place. She too wanted to globalize her own perspective and expand her knowledge of the world. As a result of her study abroad experiences, Perez has new requirements for her future college.
“Studying abroad has made me realize what I want to do in my future,” Perez said. “I’m going to a school that either has a really amazing study abroad program or I’m going to school abroad because I realized how much I love being in different places.”
Studying abroad is something all of the students recommended everyone do at least once in their lives because the experience will prove to be invaluable. To students like Marquez, studying abroad is not just about going somewhere new, it is about expanding your knowledge of the world.
“It doesn’t matter where you go,” Marquez said. “Just go out to experience the world because it’s one of the most important things you can do. The memories you make and things that you do can really change your life.”