Profile: Yana Connour

Senior Experiences the Life as a Foreigner in America

by Hadley Steele

Exchange student Rebecca Follis enjoys the cool, fall weather in Portland.

Living in America and life at Lincoln are whole new worlds for senior Rebecca Follis to experience. After eleven hours on a plane and an hour or two in customs, she arrived in Portland from the high-end city of Milan, Italy. Follis started at Lincoln as an exchange student on the first day of school eager to learn all about the American culture and to see if it’s really like the movies.

In Italy, many common stereotypes about America fill conversation, and Follis says she sees some of those stereotypical high school traits here.

“In some way it is similar to what I expected, I mean you have quarterbacks, you have cheerleaders, you have lockers and all that.” Lincoln students think their lifestyle is unlike most other American high schools, but to Follis, Lincoln fits the “norm”.

Apart from just a social life, education is an important part of Follis’s time in Portland. Education is important to schools all over the world, but American schools do lack some of the same learning traits that Italy maintains such as:Follis went to school from 8:00 to 12:00, giving her enough time for homework, but she also had to attend on Saturdays for the same amount of time. Follis even has another year of high school in Italy after finishing what we call senior year.

“In Italy we required to do a lot more homework at home, and that makes the school in general a bit tougher,” says Follis.

Americans along with Follis know that Italy is known for its unbelievably good food, but America, on the other hand, is not.

“The food definitely, and my friends, but first food then friends,” Follis says about what she misses most, “everyone told me it was going to be all fries and mac and cheese.”

Follis has traveled to multiple different countries, including having been to America before, but never as long as six months. She really enjoys the exchange program and would recommend it to anyone given the opportunity.



“It’s a life changing experience,” says Follis. “You’re still young when you go so you can learn new things and shape parts of you with a fresh set of mind. They won’t regret it even if the start it’s kind of tough.”