It’s very unusual that a foreign exchange student will come
from a smaller town than Exeter, Milligan or Cordova but that is just the case
for Karoline Knudsen.
Knudsen is from a very small town in Denmark about thirty
minutes away from Germany. She lives
with her parents about seven miles from her school out in the country where her
father has a small herd of cattle.
She enrolled in the program to improve her English. “I wanted to experience something new and I
just wanted not to be in Danish school anymore.”
Knudsen is living with the family of Travis and Sherri Due
and their children Macy and Tyler in Cordova.
She is enjoying the school year and the experience so
far. She and Macy were members of the
golf team during the fall, which helped them bond. She had a great time with golf even though
“there was a lot of homework to make up.”
The food has been a highlight of the experience for Knudsen,
“I like the food. I like cheese and
pizza. At home we don’t go out and eat
as much as we do here, maybe once a month.”
School has been a good change for her as well, “I was
getting bored in Denmark. This is a new
way of going to school, a new system. In
Denmark the students stay in one classroom and the teachers rotate.”
When she returns back home she plans to skip a year of high
school since she is taking a heavy course load of classes at Exeter-Milligan.
She has found Nebraska to be very different from her
homeland but she is embracing the different experiences and culture. She had a ball at her first Husker game and thinks
maybe she was a part of the good luck charm that helped Nebraska beat Michigan
State.
There are some things that Knudsen misses in Denmark,
primarily her family which includes her parents and three siblings. Knudsen
especially misses her little sister who is three but they are getting the
opportunity to talk on the phone.
Her future plans include a military career. Knudsen wants to be a fighter pilot and all
of the communications are in English so the language is very important to her
future, “In Denmark you are sent to the United States for 2 years of training
to become a fighter pilot.”
Knudsen’s grandfather had a plane and took she and her
siblings for a ride. She loved flying
but noted that a commercial pilot’s job was “boring.” So far she has done an internship in the army
for a week and also with a pilot for a week getting a real view of her future.
When she returns to Denmark she will finish high school and
then attend college which is free, well according to Knudsen, “free to everyone
who makes the qualifications.”
In the meantime, at Exeter-Milligan, Knudsen is playing
basketball and will join the track team which is very different from her
homeland where sports are outside of school and primarily soccer or handball.
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