As thousands of kids push around in the hallway scurrying to class, it can feel overwhelming to deal with the hustle and bustle of an American high school, especially for the first time.
“How will I ever be able to make it to class in five minutes in such a huge school,” Margo Ponomarenko thought as she experienced her first day at Lincoln East High School.
On August 5th, 2024 Marharyta (Margo) Ponomarenko stepped foot in Lincoln, Nebraska for the first time. Flying in from Ukraine, she was excited to be a foreign exchange student yet was anxious about the drastic change and the fate of her beloved home country.
“To be honest it was hard in my home country,” Ponomarenko said. “You feel like everyday is dangerous because of the war. The Target was closed, the supermarket was closed. Almost all the stores were closed. It’s sad to see a place you love so much so deserted. We wanted to leave because you never know what will happen tomorrow but in my motherland we will return.”
Ponomarenko and her family were deeply concerned for their country. She wanted a chance to temporarily leave the mess behind. Then her family got introduced to a foreign exchange program and it was the perfect opportunity for Ponomarenko to have a temporary escape while gaining valuable life experiences.
Typically, foreign exchange programs are a 2 way exchange where students from one school get placed in another school in a different country. However in Ponomarenko’s case, it was slightly different.
“The Rotary Exchange Program is one of the largest international exchange student programs that sends thousands of American high school students to study abroad for one year and most often brings a student from the same country to the United States in exchange,” Bob Rauner, board member for Lincoln Public Schools and director of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, said. “But sometimes we do only one way exchanges. In Margo’s case, rotarians from Ukraine sent out a request for a Rotary district in the United States to accept and fund students from Ukraine to study in the United States for a year. Margo applied and was accepted here in Lincoln.”
Ponomarenko was excited to be accepted into the program, but the initial shift to an American high school was a challenge.
“In the first days of being here, it was kind of shocking because so many things were different then my home country,” Ponomarekno said. “The way our schools structure classes is different and the classes the schools offer also vary. Here we can use technology like computers for our studies. It’s also confusing with all the credits we have to get to graduate. It was difficult at first to get accustomed to the change, but after a while, it was really fun. I met some amazing people and I’m learning and gaining so many new experiences that will help me in the future. I’m excited to finish the school year strong.”
Ponomarenko’s perseverance in a new place is admirable. She’s determined to learn new things and figure her way through change, even one as drastic as going to a high school in a completely different place and leaving everything you know behind.
“The whole process was pretty difficult,” Ponomarenko said. “But difficulty will make a strong person.”
