Every year, Jefferson hosts high school students from around the world, providing them insight into the average life of a Jefferson student and allowing them to experience different cultures.  This year, students have traveled from multiple countries, including France, and even more recently, Great Britain.

Oct. 23 marked the first day of high school at Jefferson for these twenty lucky British students from Ewell Castle School in Ewell, Surrey, and for the next few days, they have been living and attending Jefferson with their hosts, who they were paired up with before starting classes at Jefferson. All the students came in with high expectations of America, hoping to make close new friends.

Before the British students arrived at Jefferson, they had spent some time in the Big Apple. Many were amazed at how big and busy New York is and many marveled at the vast number of fast food chains available. While the students had a great time in New York, they also looked forward to a day in the life of an average American teenager.

“There was a lot of walking, because everything was so far and it was raining,” Harry Message, another British exchange student, said.

While these students only had the opportunity to attend Jefferson for only two days, they discovered quite a few differences between their own school and Jefferson. Along with the disappearance of school uniforms, another obvious contrast they noticed was the increase in their hosts’ homework load.

“They have so much homework – Christine was staying up until twelve,” Louis Yapp-Davis, who was junior Christine Li’s host student, said.

Many British exchange students left Jefferson with a pleasant experience and were able to get a new perspective, not only educationally, but also culturally. As a whole, they said they enjoyed their experiences at Jefferson. Likewise, the Jefferson hosts had a great time.

“Overall the exchange was a literally life changing and I would love to participate again,” junior Claire Scoggins said.