JUPITER CHRISTIAN SCHOOL – Amongst the many new students that come to JCS each year, international students often struggle stepping into a new culture and education system.
These students sometimes don’t know a lot of English and struggle in the new culture. I interviewed William Nielson, an international student from Denmark who came to JCS in hopes of a better education. William explains how he came here alone without his parents, but his friend was also moving to the US, and he says, “It helped that my friend was moving with me.” He shared his experience and talked about how there are companies that help people come to the US as international students, and how they helped him move and get used to the culture.
Coming to JCS from Denmark, he overcame different challenges such as actually getting in contact with these companies and setting up how and where he would go. He encourages international students to come to the US as “It is a fun experience coming to America.” But when it comes to helping these students at JCS overcome language and cultural barriers, things such as getting to know the teachers and seeing how the school functions would help a lot with giving them that first step into the American education system and cultural changes.
William then explained how the school he went to in Denmark was much stricter and how the staff at JCS is more willing to help and answer the questions he has. When moving here from Europe, everything is different from before, and it takes time to get used to the different lifestyle in this culture. Due to this change, it is very important to introduce international students to the school system before expecting them to already know everything.
Most of the time it is a gamble moving here because you don’t know how things are going to turn out, and as William says, “Sometimes you just have to try something new.” William suggests that an international class where these students can come together and help each other out and study would be a good way to acclimate them to the culture. But with many international students coming to JCS each year, it is important to recognize the barriers that they may face with education.
