Last week, New York students visited the city of Manhattan Thursday, when the whole club visited the K-State campus and went bowling. The next day, they attended the high school where they were partnered with a Manhattan high student to shadow.

“Me and [Alexis Schlieper, junior] talked online prior, so the use of social media definitely helped with adjusting before I came here,” said Ella Gooding, sophomore at Barker High School. “It’s a lot bigger than home but being able to just follow Alexis [Shlieper] around and just see her regular routine has been really cool, because we’ve exchanged with other countries as well but that’s really different to see in the same country as you.”

Though some students were nervous, they collectively agreed they were excited to meet new people and have gotten along really well despite how large MHS in comparison to their own school.

“I knew I was gonna have someone shadow me…I’ve been shadowed before so I kind of already knew the process,” Macy Hendricks, junior, said. “I was really excited to meet them.”

Hendrick’s partner Camren Szafrinski agreed, saying the visit made her nervous but overall she was excited to make new friends.

The club, which often sets up exchanges for foreign students, set up temporary visits in an effort to allow students to see new places and meet other members of the club across the country.

Many activities and travel events were organized and compiled on a list where students were allowed choose what experiences they wanted to have, such as visiting Topeka, the Brown v. Board of Education building, K-State, the Discovery Center, the salt mines, the Cosmosphere, Abilene and Kansas City.

“As far as choosing…everything was basically set up so we’d do things together as a group,” said Gooding.

The wide variety of options to choose from kept students interested and engaged. The choices allowed everyone to do what they enjoyed and explore what interested them most.

“Everyone in my group has never been here before so it’s a new experience for everyone,” said Gooding. ”But it’s going to be a cool thing to be able to say I’ve been here.”