Luisa Ramirez: A Journey to America

Maycee Hurt, Staff Writer

Luisa Ramirez is joining the students at Jacksonville High School for the 2019-2020 school year. Luisa has traveled about 2,624 miles to study in Jacksonville, Illinois. She is seventeen years old and came here from Colombia, South America. 

Luisa wanted to join this program because she wanted to experience new things and learn more about America. She wants to know what it’s like to live in America and know more about different cultures. She says that she wanted to study in America and practice her English more and improve in the language. In Colombia, she says that students don’t change classes throughout the day. Here, students switch rooms in between each class,  but there they stay in the same classroom for the whole school day. At her school in Colombia, there were a lot less people so there would only be one “group” per grade, similar to elementary school here. So instead of being split into different classes, the whole grade is together all day. Also, at the end of every year at Jacksonville High School, students are called into their counselor’s office to discuss which types of classes they want to take the following year. In Colombia, students do not get to choose their classes and everyone in their grade takes the same ones. Not only are classes different, but in Luisa’s school in Colombia, they do not get to use lockers. 

Luisa says that her hometown is a little bit like California, which is extremely different from Illinois. Back in Colombia, Luisa enjoyed dancing, going to the gym, and reading. She has one brother and four sisters. In Jacksonville, Luisa has a six-year-old brother and an eleven-year-old sister from her host family. Throughout her life, Luisa has traveled out of the country many times, so this isn’t TOO far out of her comfort zone. She has gone to France, Dubai, and the Dominican Republic. 

Luisa looks forward to seeing how the holiday season plays out here in America and has been enjoying her trip so far!