This 2024-2025 school year, Galena High School students and staff welcome two new exchange students; Cata Mauro from Argentina and Martha Schubert from Germany. Both are new to the States and are happy to be here! They are both being treated as seniors to be able to live the full “high school experience” …AKA prom 2025!
GHS principal, Mrs. Hawkins thinks it is wonderful to have the opportunity to have Cata and Martha in our school. “We can learn so much from these students about their cultures and we also get to teach others about Galena.”
Cata is from Cañada Rosquín, which is a small town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Cata said GHS, “It is a place where I feel comfortable and motivated to learn every day. The classes are interesting and the teachers are always willing to help me, which makes the environment very positive and facilitating for me. Also, another thing I like is that Galena High School offers many extracurricular activities that allow me to meet and interact with more people.”
Some of the differences that she found between our school and her’s is “the constant change of classes and classmates in Galena, in Argentina we remain in the same room with the same classmates all year round, with the teachers being the ones who change classrooms.” Another difference is that, “In Argentina we use school uniforms, and it is not possible to wear casual clothes, but you must wear those designated by the school.”
Martha is from Cologne, Germany, which is a big city that has a population of more than 1 million people. Martha said, “I think it’s really nice that the teachers respect you and they helped me a lot, especially in the first week of school. It’s also quite cool that the school has so many different subjects like life or ag.”
School life in Germany is different than in Galena, such as teachers, grades, and transportation. “The teachers are also not as open-minded and friendly as they are here, they won’t really talk to you outside of class… we also don’t use computers in class or listen to music.” One of the other differences that Martha said is that her, “school has 1500 people and High School is 5th-13th grade.” In addition to that, “almost nobody goes by car to school, they either go by train/bus, bike or walk.”
We are all very happy to have them both in our school. Learning new things from Cata and Martha will be very exciting throughout the entire year. We hope to make them feel welcome and at home with our small community school.
