Many students at Camas High School aren’t aware of, or can’t find the amazing opportunities available to them. Studying abroad is one of those opportunities. Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors that are interested in learning a new language,  culture, and are also ready to face the hardships and commitment of going abroad should talk to Sean Tamura.

Camas High School has seven foreign exchange students in total this year. The students come from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Brazil, and Sweden.

According to Sean Tamura, a staff member of CHS who coordinates the student exchange program, says that typically CHS accepts foreign exchange students who come to the school their senior or junior year, but the school makes an exception for some sophomores. Many come here because they want to discover what an American public school is like.

Foreign students have academic and legal standards in order to stay in America, including being prepared to graduate in their own country. 

Some of these things are similar to what high schoolers from America go through when they go abroad. But right now at CHS, there are zero students going abroad.

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors can go study abroad.

“It’s up to the parents and whether they feel comfortable enough and trust their students, that’s why it’s typically the age of juniors and seniors. It seems like parents are more willing to let their kids go abroad as they grow older,”  Tamura said.

Cameron Hord, a freshman, seems to agree with that statement. “High schoolers need maturity or mature people around them so they don’t get kidnapped or killed,” he said.

James Crawford, another CHS student, said “I think it’s a great way to learn new cultures, but I do believe that it can be kind of stressful when [teens] are so young and their brains are still developing.”

There are many programs to apply to go abroad to. The program that students apply to depends on which country the student wants to go to, and there is a limit of students the program can accept because of the resources of the program. When they are considering accepting, they “take pretty much everything into consideration, your academics, parent’s income level, and what kinds of resources you have had to study a language,” Tamura said. 

“It is not unheard of for students, if they want to study abroad, to watch a lot of Youtube videos to learn the language,” Tamura said.

“It is recommended that you are somewhat familiar with the language in the country that they are going to go to,” he added.

Many parents might be concerned about their children’s safety to let their children go, but the programs do “pretty extensive background checks on host families, and any family that is interested in being a host family has to go through an application process, they have to go through a background check online and in-person visits to check out the home situation ahead of time. It’s dependent on the different organizations themselves whether they approve or deny the application process from host families” Tamura said.

There are scholarships to go abroad, but not from Camas High School, so money can’t withhold someone from going abroad. 

Kaitlin Weidman, a freshman, said “studying abroad is an amazing opportunity and I definitely think kids should take advantage of it. It makes you independent, the students learn to speak another language, it teaches about different cultures, and I myself have plans to study abroad next year.”

Taylor Minick, a senior, said that “going abroad gives you a different outlook on things, their beliefs, and how things work, their schooling system, and comparing how things work to America, it changes the way you view things on certain aspects of life I guess.”

Minick currently is planning to go study abroad in Japan. 

Eli Deardorff, a student at CHS, said that they “personally would not like to go,” but they think that “it would be great to experience places that are not here.” 

Tamura said that “the biggest thing the students have to consider when signing up for an exchange program is [they] have to be very committed to staying in that country for a whole year. There are not many programs that have just one semester. [They should] just be prepared to stay 9 full months away from home in a foreign country.” 

If any of the students are interested in the exchange program, and are willing to stay an extended amount of time away from America in order to have this remarkable experience, they can talk to Tamura, and he says that he will help them “find a good fit” from there.