As a new school within the district, North Point aims to become a place where all students are welcome, and this comes to show, with most of our students transferring from Holt, Liberty or Timberland. However, what about bringing students from other countries? Most of us have come from countless middle schools to high school, and then came here to North Point, but two of our students have moved from Europe all the way to North America. Severin Bohn (’24) and Amelie Franzen (’23) have both traveled over 4,882 miles from Germany to Wentzville, Missouri.

Severin Bohn, our male foreign exchange student, is enjoying his school experience so far. 

“I am very much enjoying my time here at North Point,” Bohn said. “I will only be staying here for a year, but in the two months I’ve already been here, the people have been very accepting and interested in me, and the culture back home in Germany.” 

Amelie Franzen, our female foreign exchange student, is also enjoying her time here.

“Much like Severn, I am also staying with a Host family,” Franzen said. “Severin arrived here a week or two before I did, but I feel like I experienced less of a culture shock as he did, but I did struggle more with learning the language, I’m still learning how to speak English as well as the rest of you. I was afraid that when I moved here that I would be the center of attention due to me being from another country. However, it seems that Severn tends to receive most of the attention.”

Bohn is enjoying his time here but misses his family.

“I do miss my family certainly, but once my time here at North Point is finished, I have a feeling that I will deeply miss America,” Bohn said. “The People have been so nice to me, It’s interesting to learn about the culture, and the friends I’ve made always make me feel included. Once my time here in America is done, I will most certainly miss America and the friends I’ve made throughout my journey.”

Franzen also misses her family.

“I do miss my home and my Family back in Germany, and I do often think about going back as soon as possible, but the friends I’ve made here, and all I still have yet to learn keep me motivated to complete my time here,” Franzen said. “But once my time here in America is over, I’m sure I’ll miss my friends, my host family and all the things here in America that they don’t have in Germany. Regardless, I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my time here in America, and I’m sure I’ll miss it once I go back home.”

Most of the students enrolled here at North Point transferred here from other nearby High Schools such as Holt, Liberty, and Timberland. With the addition of these two transfer students, many North Point students begin to wonder if it’s possible to send students here from North Point to other foreign schools.

“In order for a student to transfer to a foreign school, the student must get in contact with a travel agency and explain to them that their trip is for educational purposes, whereupon, the agency will get in contact with the student’s current school, and the new foreign school,” Shelmire said.  “If the central office of both schools agrees to participate in the exchange, then the student will go on to enroll at a foreign school. However, there will most likely never be an exchange program where we will regularly send and receive students from other schools.”

As our foreign exchange students continue to live and learn here at North Point, we strive to become a diverse school for all students. Each high school is allowed four exchange students per year and Ms. Swanson has information for any students who are interested in hosting in the second semester or next year.

We hope that our exchange students learn a lot from us, and we believe that our original students can learn a lot from them as well. And if the odds work in our favor, we believe that we can bring in more foreign exchange students to make North Point a better, versatile place for all students to learn.