Many students have the opportunity to study abroad, allowing them to study in places across the globe. Through the Council on International Education (CIEE) it gave a fellow Timber Creek student the prerogative to study in our school. 17-year-old Bruna Araujo is an exchange student from Brazil. Through CIEE she signed up to get a different learning experience. She started her journey to America with only the basic knowledge of English.
Araujo said the experience has been beneficial to her so far.
“It’s amazing to me because it’s a new country with new people and a different culture,” Araujo said. “Everything is just new for me, allowing me to experience new things that most people can’t.”
Araujo has been a Timber Creek student for five months and will go back home to Brazil in June. She’s a junior in the American school system, but in Brazil she would already be done with school. The Brazil system only has three years worth of education which lasts from February through November.
During the program the CIEE chooses where to send each individual for a total stay of 10 months. Every individual stays with a host family during their stay. The organization has five class obligations for every applicant: English, history, science, physical education and math. The ages that you can apply are 15 to 18.
Through this organization they are giving new experiences to students like Araujo, and to teachers like Amanda Brundrett who teaches theatre at Timber Creek.
“It’s a really good experience for me because it forces me to find creative ways of explaining so she can understand, but it also allows me to empathize,” Brundrett said.