By Zoe Robinson
When British exchange student Millie Ohannes came to the United States to live for two weeks with sophomore Yveliz Ortiz-Dennis, she was completely stunned by the one and only American phenomenon: Chick-fil-A. “It is so good, oh my god,” she told me as we chatted after school.
She was also surprised by Six Flags, calling it “absolutely massive!”
She told me there are many differences between Lovett and her school in England, which Yveliz attended in June. Millie described the St. Mary’s building as small and quiet, and Lovett…is “not that.”
Besides the fact that Lovett doesn’t board like St. Mary’s, there are some incredible differences between our schools.
When thinking about the people, Millie was shocked at the waves of students she saw every day. Both of our school communities are loving and close-knit, just in different ways. A St. Mary’s grade level is a tightly connected, small circle of students – most of whom board together at school!
It’s true that many Lovett students are siblings, so they do live together, but the similarities end there. Our students have addresses all around the city, and all Upper School grade levels are well over 100 students.
Not only was the size of our tenth-grade class dauntingly big, but apparently the size of our building was also. Our Upper School students typically have classes available in two buildings, as opposed to St. Mary’s, which is a one-story building for all classes.
“Your school is absolutely massive with just ten minutes to get everywhere… and stairs! There are stairs everywhere!”
Millie followed the exact same schedule as Yveliz… except when it came to language. “I study German and Yveliz studies Chinese, so I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do with that,” she told me on her first day.
Millie eventually made the switch to Latin, her only class without Yveliz. “I enjoyed Chinese, but it’s nice to be in a class where I can actually understand what we’re learning,” she said.
One thing Millie was really happy to see in our school was the retake policy. In England, they have GCSEs, which are standardized tests like the SAT. Students can take yearlong courses to cover all the material they’ll need, and then take the test. The prep and courses for these tests are done during both 10th and 11th grade and show colleges how thoroughly a student understands the subjects that are being taught.
Everyone takes the test for core subjects (i.e. math, English, science, etc.), but they also have the opportunity to take GCSEs that cover elective subjects like drama or music.
With GCSEs, Millie told me that there is the option to retake your GCSE, but the retake policies are exceptionally strict. “If you miss the time you scheduled your test resit, you get a 3%.”
Not only do we have retakes on unit tests at Lovett, but we also have the option to take and retake standardized tests (like the SAT) almost as many times as we want!
Beyond getting to try new fast food and theme parks, Millie was excited by the prospect of experiencing an entirely new way of life and learning. Her friend at St. Mary’s had just come back from an exchange in France and was raving about how incredible her time there was. This gave Millie the inspiration to apply to this exchange.
While she was hopeful in applying to the program, she didn’t actually think she’d get in. “My teacher came in and he was like, ‘How are you feeling about the American exchange?’ and I thought, ‘I didn’t get it, did I?” When she did, she was shocked.
She was definitely nervous but “When you get an opportunity like that, you have to take it – it’s life-changing!”
Millie went on to tell me that it’s perfectly natural to have fears about what an exchange program will be like, but that “this is one of the best things that you can do for yourself, your whole world will change!”
Many people agree with that statement, including our Director of Civic and Global Engagement, Ms. Turner.
On the first day of classes, I went with Millie and Yveliz to pick up hard copies of their schedule from Ms. Turner. As she passed them out, Ms. Turner reminded all of us of how great it is to be able to have these opportunities again.
As we all know, COVID put a hold on so many amazing opportunities for our students. We won’t ever get that time back, but our head of travel opportunities, the incredible Ms. Turner, is elated to see them restart.
“We just want our students to have the best experiences possible, and unfortunately [our students] had to miss out on them for a while now,[which is why] it’s just so exciting to see [Millie and Yveliz] have those experiences again!” Ms. Turner exclaimed.
Alongside another sophomore exchange pair, Poppy from St. Mary’s and our own Shelby Morris, Millie and Yveliz are the first to participate in this experience since before the COVID pandemic, so this exchange was a special one.
Millie bid a fond “cheerio!” to America this past Saturday, and excitedly awaits the day she can reunite with our sacred Chick-fil-A chicken minis.
