Cross Country Team Sees Diversity in New Season

Cross Country Team Sees Diversity in New Season

By Tasneem Ali/Gator Galaxy Staff

This year, North Star’s cross country team is more culturally diverse than it has ever been with over 10 different ethnicities represented.

There are runners from Brazil, Denmark, Ethiopia, Norway, North Sudan, and South Sudan. There are students who are African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, and biracial.  Each and every one of these students joined the team, because they enjoy the sport and/or just want to make new friends. Both girls who came from Denmark and Norway joined the team, in order to make friends

Three runners are foreign exchange students from Denmark, Norway, and Brazil. Junior Mathilde “Maddie” Rasksen is from Denmark. She said, to become an exchange student, first she had to apply, take a test, then interview in order to be chosen. Rasksen said school is different in Denmark compared to North Star. “In North you guys have a lot of students, we used to have 500, which is normal, but then we expanded to 1,000.” She also said their lunches are different. They have 20 minutes at 10 a.m. and then 30 minutes at noon, but they eat in their classrooms, not a cafeteria. In Denmark they don’t have any sports, activities, clubs or programs at their school. “If we want to be involved in [cross country] then we would have to do it outside of school on our own time,” Rasksen said.

Junior Thea Hoff is from Norway. Hoff’s process was similar to Rasksen’s, but her host family was able to choose her. “I put up an online profile and then a family chose me to be their host family for the next year,” Hoff said. There are a lot of small schools in Norway, but Hoff’s had about the same amount of students that are at North Star. “We have no activities at school or sports. Everything we do is outside of school,” said Hoff. “We sometimes leave school at 1:45 p.m., 11:15 a.m., or 3:30 p.m. We have a different schedule every day. Our lunch is usually 50 minutes to an hour, and we complain sometimes because it’s so long.”

There are many different ways to become a foreign exchange student. Organizations like AFS-USA (formerly the American Field Service), and Rotary Club International help place American students all over the world through their exchange programs. For more information, see your counselor.

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Cross Country Team Sees Diversity in New Season