Senior Angelica Pepa joined the McNick community as an international student to experience American culture for the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year.
Pepa is from Italy and learned about the opportunity from her sister, who had previously been an exchange student.
“My sister and some of my friends did this experience and they all had fun and met a lot of people,” Pepa said.
Living in another country, while exciting, can be a rather difficult task. Not only is the culture unfamiliar, international students are living with and meeting entirely new people. In addition, they have to learn how to navigate an entirely new school system.
“In Italy we are in class with the same people, we have more subjects, and we can’t decide subjects…We have a lot of homework in Italy but they don’t give us a grade for homework and they only sometimes check,” Pepa said. “Also, a difference from this school is that we don’t have activities at school, like sports.” Pepa does gymnastics in Italy, and she is now currently involved in the McNick theatre as part of the stage crew.
“It’s quite difficult but I like it…my favorite thing is meeting new people, and knowing new cultures,” Pepa said.
However, although McNick is a shift from what she is used to, Pepa described the community here as being welcoming and helpful.
“[The students] are lovely, they help each other, and also if you don’t ask for help and see that you are in trouble they will help you,” Pepa said.
The McNicholas Milestone 