It’s no secret that small towns have an issue with diversity. Because of its small population, Scituate, Ma. lacks the diversity that bigger cities are proud of. But how can a small beach town like Scituate, the most Irish town in America, expand its cultural horizons and welcome people with varying backgrounds?

    Junior Jenna Brooks has a solution. Currently studying abroad in Germany for an entire school year, Brooks is completely immersed in the German way of life. While her friends in Scituate are stressing over prom and AP Exams, Brooks is more concerned with navigating the halls of her new school and making friends with students native to a country she is just getting used to. Junior Jillian Palubicki, a friend of Jenna’s, wasn’t surprised when Brooks told her the big news. She said, “I knew it had been a dream of hers.”

    Next year, Brooks plans on bringing an intercultural club as well as an exchange student to SHS. She hopes to use the knowledge she has gained through her year abroad to “encourage intercultural learning and experience,” she said.

    So far this year, Brooks has experienced a lot of the ups and downs of exchange life. She said, “I miss my family a lot, miss being able to do everything without help.” Yet, she enjoys how much she has grown and matured as a person and as a student. She said she is proud of “being able to say ‘I’m an exchange student.’”

    Because of her year in Germany, Brooks said, “I now know how to treat other people without judging them.” She wishes to spread her accepting nature and plans to host an exchange student of her own. She is hopeful that she can take what she has learned this year and help her exchange student in their adjustment to living in Scituate. She understands how difficult exchange life can be and thinks that she’ll be able to make her student feel at home in this foreign country.

    Brooks is also hoping that other SHS students will be willing to host students as well. She said that if SHS had more exchange students, the community could become “worldly, knowledgeable and less ignorant of other cultures.”  If any students are interested in this, she encourages them to become involved in the program that she is a part of called American Field Service (AFS), whose goal is to increase tolerance between cultures through exchange trips.

    Brooks said that if someone wants to host an exchange student, “all you need is a bed for the student, to pay for the food, and be willing to love this student like a child/sibling.” Host families don’t need to be fluent in any foreign languages because the students are here to learn English.

    Not only is Brooks hosting an exchange student, she is creating an AFS club as well. Through this club, Brooks aims to encourage students to become involved with AFS and welcome any incoming exchange students. Her club will work towards making the SHS community more tolerable to other cultures.