Foreign exchange students and teachers from Copenhagen, Denmark visited Northern Virginialast week. They stayed with the families of Marshall students.
They experienced the American educational system by shadowing their host students for a day. They attended their classes as well as extracurricular activities and sports practices.
According to Danish student Patricia Van Overeem, the Danish school system is much different than in America. The Danish student’s high school is called Nørre Gymnasium and they attend it for three years. The students that visited Marshall are in the third year of the school. Van Overeem also said that the Marshall is different than Danish schools because its size.
“Our school is half the size,” she said, adding that “more people make the atmosphere really good.”
Danish teacher Christine Dabelsteen shadowed IB Film and Topics classes.
“[Marshall has] got a different schedule structure than we do,” Dabelsteen said. “It’s very complicated.”
Dabelsteen also enjoyed attending Learn with her students.
“I really like the concept,” she said. “We don’t have that in Danish schools.”
Van Overeem also said there was a difference in the way that people interact.
“The teachers are nice … I’m not sitting alone, people talk to me,” she said.
For the rest of the week, the students did a media project for which they visited Washington, D.C. and Tysons. They made a documentary about life in America and the influence of politics. They visited Georgetown, the Newseum, the monuments and the Torpedo factory art gallery.
The experience was also beneficial to the host students.
Marshall Junior Kevin Steiner volunteered to be a host student because he likes “learning about how other people live.”
“I think [this program] is really cool,” he said. “I think we should do a lot more [like this] in the future.”