Lola Rodriguez is a foreign exchange student attending Wawasee High School during the 2021-22 school year. She comes from one of the Canary Islands of Spain. Photo by Tim Ashley.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Lola Rodriguez is a typical teen who is not quite sure what she wants to pursue for a career. She’s exploring various options and currently doing so thousands of miles from her home.

Lola, age 17, is the lone foreign exchange student attending Wawasee High School for the duration of the 2021-22 school year. She comes from one of the Canary Islands off the south coast of Spain but which belong to Spain though the islands are actually closer to Morocco.

She arrived in America July 31 and has been staying with host family Jason and Emily Worrell in Syracuse. Jason teaches at Syracuse Elementary and Emily is a teacher at Milford School.

Lola said she decided to become an exchange student because she wanted to experience the American culture and she was also influenced by her father, Ricardo Rodriguez. “My dad did it when he was my age,” she said, noting he stayed with a family in Rochester, N.Y.

She learned to speak English in the fifth grade and noted the school system in Spain differs from the U.S. There is no middle school and students go from the sixth grade to high school they are required to attend from grades seven through 10. For the next two years they can stay in high school, attend college or choose a different career path.

Also in Spain, there are no school sports but instead club teams offering sports. “There is no school spirit (in Spain),” she said. “I love the attendance here at sports. There are more options to choose from here.”

In Spain, she noted only the basic subjects are offered for classes.

During the current trimester at Wawasee Lola is attending a ceramics class, which she said she enjoys very much, and also an outdoor water sports class which is a physical education elective class. She is participating in sailing, canoeing and kayaking among other activities. She is also taking math, history and yearbook classes.

She is a cheerleader, too, and has observed “football games are a big deal here,” and there is a student cheering section. She will likely be a cheerleader for the upcoming basketball season.

As a hobby, Lola enjoys ballet type dancing and said she has been involved in it for as long as she can remember.

Something that has clearly stood out to her as being different in the U.S., in addition to the culture, is the ever changing weather patterns in northern Indiana. “It is very dry where I come from,” she said, “but it is more stormy here.”

Lola has never seen snow and will likely experience that fairly soon.

She wants to go to college but is unsure of a specific career. “I really like kids, so I may become a teacher,” she noted.

Her father owns a language translating business used to help tourists who visit the Canary Islands. Her mother, Lola Moreno (in Spain women keep their maiden name even after marriage) is a yoga and Pilates instructor.

Lola has an older brother, Javier, who is 20 years old.