AFS goes ice skating

Adam Wollenberg, Staff Writer

A chilly indoor afternoon brought Manhattan High AFS students together building international friendships. AFS went ice skating on Saturday to give foreign exchange students a view into the life of an American student.

“The main thing that we really try to do is, there’s not a lot different between individuals, may have different styles, different cultures, different ways we do things but adolescent or adolescence and you know, in one country or not and so forth,” AFS sponsor Tony Wichmann said. “Just to simply try to teach them the similarities between individuals, no matter where you live.”

AFS is teaching the foriegn exchange students that there is not much difference between them and American students. 

“I hope they get accustomed to the traditions, that many American students have and just get to experience a year in the life of an American and get to meet new friends both like international and domestic,” senior Elizabeth Chapman said.

AFS hopes the foreign exchange students get accustomed to the American tradition.

“I hope they get integrated into the American culture in their year here,” senior Duru Dogan said. “And that they learn, you know like what the daily life of an American Teenager is like and that we can help them find that out for themselves.”    

To the exchange students, AFS has taught them about friendships.

“It taught me about like how to have a good relationship with other people, like, how to get along with them, and yeah, taught me friendship,” junior Pattamon Na Rangee said.

Students at Manhattan High School who are not a foreign exchange students can still be part of AFS, as volunteers.

“So my family has involved with it ever since I was in first  grade, and we hosted about nine exchange students,” senior Luke Wichmann said. “And so it’s just always been a part of my life and so I decided to volunteer, so that I could help out even more.”

People joined AFS because they had prior experiences with foriegn exchange students.

“I joined AFS my sophomore year, and I just really loved getting to meet the foreign exchange students that come every year and get to experience the culture,” Chapman said.

Some people joined AFS because they wanted to get to know foriegn exchange students.

“So I joined my freshmen year,” Dogan said. “I heard that there were exchange students at the high school, and one was hosting. So I just wanted to be a part of like all the activities that AFS club plans for the students.” 

AFS is welcoming to any MHS student who would like to volunteer in the club. 

“Anybody’s welcome to join, will always help, be welcome to have more individuals involved and so forth,” Tony said.