After going a few school years without having a foreign exchange student, lost time is being made up this school year as five students from overseas are attending Fennimore High School for the 2025-26 school year.
The students include three from Germany, Carlotta Andel, Sofia Cremer, and Marie Meyer; and two from Spain, Julia Goenaga-Clotet and Bruna Pla Vich.
The five girls are not only schoolmates, but also teammates as they are all on the Fennimore High School Cross Country team, and to really get a small, rural Wisconsin town experience, four out of the five are staying with families who are also family, while two of them, Carlotta and Bruna are staying with the same family.
With their second week of attending American high school about finished, the girls gave introductions and descriptions of their brief time attending Fennimore High School.
Caroltta Andel
Carlotta is a junior from Germany and is staying with Ryan and Emily Kamps. Carlotta chose to be an exchange student because as she stated, “I wanted to experience going to a high school and experiencing everyday life in the United States.”
She also said she wanted to get better with the English language and get to know our culture here and meet new people to have “a second family and friends” in the United States.
“I love the school spirit here,” Carlotta went on to say. “I like how people just ask you questions and how open they are. Fennimore is very small and everyone knows everything going on. I live close to a bigger town and the everyday life is so very different.”
While in the states, Carlotta wants to go to football games and other school sports, attend homecoming, spirit night, and prom, and try the fast food.
Carlotta plans to go to university after high school and “maybe do something with law, health or politics.”
Sofia Cremer
Sofia is a sophomore from Germany and is staying this school year with Laura Maier and her family.
She decided on being an exchange student because as she stated “I wanted to learn about the cultural differences and experience the typical high school life.”
When comparing Germany to her brief time here, Sofia stated, “The people here are very open and talkative and the school system works in a completely different way.”
Sofia wants to go to “basically every school activity that involves meeting other people and making new friends. She also said she was very excited for the upcoming week of Homecoming activities.
Like Carlotta, Sophia is also unsure about what career she’d like to go into, but she does plan to go on to university.
Marie Meyer
Marie is a junior this year, and is from Berlin, Germany, which is obviously quite bigger than the rural town of Fennimore. She is staying with Dan and Kim Maier and their children.
“I really wanted to have a family on this side of the world, and experience a different daily life,” Marie said when asked why she decided to be an exchange student.
“There are so many different things I’ve learned about life in America, and high school life,” Marie stated. “People here eat a lot of fast food, especially at school.”
She went on to say about cultural differences, “People here do a lot of stuff in a day and decide everything spontaneously.”
Like her fellow German exchange students, Marie “really wants to do every activity with school,” and also is looking forward to Christmas when she and her host family may do a vacation to Puerto Rico.
Marie also plans on attending college, but stated she may want to possibly do a semester of college back here in the tates.
Julia Goenaga-Clotet
Julia is a sophomore from Spain, and is staying here with Chad and Holly Freymiller.
When asked why she chose to be an exchange student, Julia stated, “I thought it could be a great experience and I will learn, make new friends, and will remember this my whole life.”
Food came up again when asked about the differences between here and her country of Spain. “The sweets here are so much different,” she explained, as well as the other foods here.
She did say she wants to try new foods and like her German schoolmates wants to do school activities like attend football games.
Julia did say she would like to meet more of the extended family of her host family.
Being only a sophomore, Julia hasn’t decided on a career path, but next school year she’ll be in Bachillerato (Baccalaureate), the equivalent of United States junior and senior years in high school. The two years of Bachillerato include subjects like humanities, science, and arts.
Bruna Pla Vich
Bruna is also a sophomore from Spain, and is also being hosted by Ryan and Emily Kamps. Two exchange students in the same household.
She chose to be a foreign exchange student because she knew people that were exchange students and they had “an amazing time,” according to Bruna, which made her want the same experience.
Bruna said the biggest difference with the school here and ones back in Spain is “here, we are the ones who change classroom and not the teachers.”
She also said there are many more extra curricular sports here. Spain does have track and field, but not cross country like she and the other ones are part of.
The pattern of food/fast food came up again when asked what she’d like to experience here, namely different restaurants.
Bruna said she hoped to see other places in America with her host family while here in the states, as well as try new sports and do all the activities at school she can.
Going to college is in her future Bruna explained, with maybe a career “like in science or an engineer.”
