Foreign exchange students celebrate time in Prairie Village

Mayor Ron Shaffer posed with foreign exchange students at last week's city council meeting. Pictured are (left to right) Lucie Piette (Belgium), Mareike Brauer (Germany), Lorraina Chavee (Belgium), Sandra Daub (Germany), Silvana Stefan (Romania), Vira Shchydlyuk (Ukraine). Absent from picture: Anne Winkel (Germany).

Mareike Brauer of Germany and Lola Chavee of Belgium thought they had a pretty good idea of what life in the United States would be like before they came here as foreign exchange students — and they haven’t been disappointed.

After all, they’d both seen High School Muscial in their home countries (Brauer saw it dubbed in German, Chavee in French).

“I think it’s like the movie,” Brauer said. “When we all get together for assemblies. It’s a lot like that.”

Brauer and Chavee are two of seven foreign exchange students currently studying at SM East. The students and their host families met at city hall last week for a party and to be recognized by the city council.

Carole Mosher, who has helped organize the foreign exchange program here for several years, says the program provides a wonderful opportunities for both the students, and their host families and peers at school, to learn about other cultures.

“The students can really be from anywhere,” she said, ‘”which means we get exposed to cultures from all over the globe.”

This year, the students comes from Germany, Belgium, Romania and Ukraine.