Malcolm High School senior Alessia De Colo traveled from Taibon, Italy, to complete her foreign exchange year in Nebraska. She stayed with the Maddox family and has two host siblings.
When De Colo was in middle school, she heard someone tell their story about doing a foreign exchange year in China.
From that moment on, she knew she wanted to study abroad. She made that dream a reality when she arrived in the United States for the first time in August of 2021.
“I was very excited,” she said. “And, I’d been waiting for a long time to come here, so everything was awesome.”
Coming from a place where the legal driving age is 18, one of the things that surprised De Colo the most when she came to the U.S. was seeing eighth-graders drive themselves to school. She said she also noticed that Americans typically eat supper earlier than Italians, who she said often eat at around 8 p.m.
De Colo said there are differences in the way school works, as well. In Italy, she started school at 8 a.m. and wrapped up at 1 p.m. She said that, although the time spent in class is longer, school seems easier in the U.S. and there is more student involvement.
“Here, you have all the extra activities that you can do, and students are more involved in the school,” she said.
During her time at Malcolm, De Colo participated in drama, speech and some basketball.
“I started drama, and being able to go into other schools and see other people was one of the best things I did here,” she said. “And speech, I think, was the best activity I was in because I met a lot of people that I am now friends with– I have friends that are not just in Malcolm.”
De Colo said the biggest challenge she initially faced when she came to the U.S. was the language barrier.
“My host family really, really helped me with that. They repeated things to me lots of times, so I could understand what they were saying,” she said. “And, also the teachers. They really helped me with that, and they never expected things I could not do.”
She said that although it took her a little while to adjust to all the changes that came with being in a new country, things have fallen into place for her in Nebraska.
“I think it took me like three months before I started enjoying it a lot. And, now, I think it will be hard for me to adapt when I go back,” De Colo said.
