How far is far? 5,100 miles is a long way from home, and that’s almost exactly how far these French students had to travel to attend Westside High School. Having to adapt to a new schedule and a different language was fairly difficult and challenging to the foreign exchange students but with the help of Westside students and faculty, their stay was trouble-free. 2 weeks in Texas was well spent as they visited many places, saw different people, and learned about the school system in America.

2 teachers from Angers, France had reached out and proposed an exchange to schools in Houston, and Westside was one to glady respond to their offer. One of the teachers, who is an English teacher, contacted Mr. Alexander, a French teacher from Westside. Since the teacher had a whole unit to teach about space, the students heard about Houston a lot and were extremely interested in coming here. The students come from a school named Lycée Sacré Cour, which translates to Sacred Heart High School and only seniors had come to Westside. The students arrived on February 21st and departed from Houston on the 5th of March. During this time, they visited NASA, The Museum of Fine Arts, The Museum of Natural Science, Rice University, Galveston, and Austin. They even went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to watch Blake Shelton perform and eat the well-known, delicious fried oreos. When taking classes at Westside, their classes ranged from different upper-level science and math classes since they were STEM (acronyms for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math) students.

The students presented so much positive feedback that the teachers from both Westside and Lycée Sacré Cour are hoping to make this an annual experience. In fact, more students will be coming to Westside in October of 2018 to come visit and attend classes here at the school. The families who housed the French students were said to have been very lovely to the students. Now, the students who voluntarily housed the French students will have the opportunity to visit France during the summer in July. Not only was this a fun escape for the French students, but they also learned many ways of a Texan and how different or interesting Houston could be. We hope to encourage and welcome more students from different countries to come and visit Westside. Once a wolf, always a wolf!