This fall, a group of teenagers from a small island in between England and France spent a month as students in Baker High School, immersing themselves in American life, staying with host families, and experiencing a part of the United States the typical European tourist doesn’t see.
The students are from the Isle of Jersey, attending Baker through a new partnership between the Baker School District and the Hautlieu School.
Seventeen-year-old Esme Deer is one of the Hautlieu students.
“We’re all from an agricultural island, that’s what Jersey is known for, and this is an agricultural place, but it’s so different...,” Deer said of Baker City. “You go to places in America like New York and Florida and California, but you don’t go to somewhere that’s a little town in the middle of really nowhere. There’s a chance that we genuinely won’t ever be able to do it again.”
The students sit at desks in a Baker High School classroom during their last week in town. Eighteen-year-old Lottie Bates wore a jacket bearing the University of Oregon colors.
“I’ve made really great friends that I don’t want to leave, make me feel a bit sad,” Bates said.
Ten students from the Isle of Jersey have spent the last month at Baker High School in Baker City, Ore. They stayed with host families and immersed themselves in American life.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
International students may not think of Baker City as a destination for a study abroad trip, but the school district is making a concerted effort to put the town and school district on the map with a new district charter school. With the Oregon International School, director Tom Joseph hopes to expand the connection between Baker City and the rest of the world.
“Like any high school, we’ve hosted international students that are placed by outside agencies,” Joseph said.
“Our motivation was to do a little something with more intentionality around having them here, and having some programs that added a curricular focus, and some kind of intentional integration of their experience here.”
That means helping students secure visas to come here, and finding host families for the students to stay with.
“We’re one of six public schools in the country that have that capacity,” Joseph said.
In addition to the 10 students from Jersey, there are 26 students from five other countries — Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Taiwan and Thailand — staying for the year.
More initiative to bring students to Baker City
Joseph said he and former Superintendent Mark Witty started the Oregon International School with the goal of affordability. Part of that comes from personal experience. Growing up, Joseph said, his family couldn’t afford a two-week trip to Paris with his French class in high school.
“We’re very motivated to do what we could to cut down that price a little bit to make it more accessible to as many kids as possible,” he said.
Another motivation for Joseph was bringing American students and students from other countries together in a class. Joseph, who used to teach English at the high school, envisions a collaborative college writing research class where students can focus on a world issue that has relevance for everyone.
Joseph said the school is still in its pilot year and that class isn’t up and running yet.
For now, though, Joseph says having Baker students and staff interact with students from other countries helps broaden their community and learn about cultures beyond their small town.
“They’re making friends and engaging and becoming teammates,” Joseph said. “Just seeing the chance to meet somebody and learn about their culture is just so rewarding.”
Lunch at Baker High School in Baker City, Ore., on Oct. 3, 2022. Flags on the wall represent the countries the school's international students come from.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
On a recent October day at Baker High School, five Ukrainian students sat at a lunch table together.
“We like this city,” said 15-year-old Sofiia Hryhir. “This place is really beautiful and the people are really kind.”
Her classmate Mariana Kostiuk, also 15, agreed. “I like the mountains around the city, and the people here,” she said.
In the short time they’ve been in the U.S., they’ve joined school activities. Hryhir is a cheerleader, and plans to join the Future Business Leaders of America. Kostiuk plays soccer.
The students are taking math, history and all the same classes Baker students take. Hryhir says math is easier in Baker City than it is back home in Ukraine.
“This school is easier,” Hryhir said. “Classes are more interesting, and teachers are really good.”
Several students said teachers in the U.S. are more friendly.
“Here, people have a relationship with their teachers,” said 17-year-old Giorgia Piccinelli, a student from Italy.
“School is more inclusive, we are more included in every kind of activity,” said another Italian student, Emilia Cantone, 17.
“What kids from around the world in multiple places are telling me is that their orientation to the staff is, it’s not personable, it’s almost business-like — you come, you do the work, you receive a grade,” Joseph said. “And who you are as a person, and who they are as people — there’s a distance to it.”
Teacher Scott Compton monitors students during class on Oct. 3, 2022. Compton teaches three sections of classes for international students, helping them with English and assignments in other classes.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
Teacher Scott Compton is focused on helping the international students with their English. During one of three classes he has with the students, he works with them one-on-one with assignments, using markers on a whiteboard to help one Ukrainian student work through the difference between “accept” and “except.”
“These students work so hard,” Compton said. “It is hard for me to think of any students who work so hard in a given subject as these students are to learn English. I think that’s just an acknowledgment that they realize the power that English has in a global setting, they realize the significance that English has.”
Students point out that Baker has a four-day school week, and the days are longer. In some European countries, students may go to school six days a week, but with fewer lessons.
Joseph, the school director, says the point of the budding international program isn’t necessarily an academic one.
“It’s more experiential,” he said. “‘I want the cultural immersion, I want the chance to practice my English’, but in many ways, what they do here - it’s not wasted time, but the credits don’t exactly transfer one to one.”
Baker students have also received the chance to study abroad through this program. While 10 students from Jersey have been in Baker City, 10 Baker students have been in Jersey.
International student Natnaree Tanrattanawong (right), who goes by True, with host "sister" Ataya DeVore. True is one of the international students who attended the Oregon International School at Baker High School in 2022. DeVore recently returned from a study abroad trip to the Isle of Jersey, through a partnership between the small island and the Baker School District.
Courtesy of Shelley DeVore
“It was way out of her comfort zone,” Shelley DeVore said of her daughter Ataya DeVore, who recently returned from Jersey. “... She kind of grew a little bit in the process and learned who she was.”
DeVore said her daughter enjoyed her host family, and seeing a new place, though she struggled a bit with the school transition. This year, DeVore’s family is also hosting an international student from Thailand.
“I wanted my children to think, it’s not just Baker City,” Devore said. “There’s so much more out there to live and see and breathe.”
In turn, Joseph said the international students in Baker City get an authentic view of day-to-day life in America.
“You can’t get a more realistic taste of what America is like than being immersed in a small town like this...,” Joseph said. “Taking them to a Friday-night football game under the lights, and just all of the small town, ceremonial aspect of, this is a Friday night in so many towns across this country right now.”
‘The world becomes both bigger and smaller’
Like Ataya DeVore, Elizabeth Smithson’s son Thomas Smithson recently returned from Jersey. Smithson, who is hosting two Jersey students and an Italian student, said she noticed a difference in her son immediately.
“He was very shy, very much an introvert, and all of the sudden he just kind of blossomed...” she said. “I love that he’s seeing different cultures, different people from that perspective.”
Baker students were in Jersey, a British Crown Dependency that’s part of the British Isles, when Queen Elizabeth II died.
“My daughter was like, ‘I lived through history,’ and I was like, ’You did,’ and that was just overwhelming for her,” DeVore said. “... Someone’s going to read that in a textbook later in life.”
“Thomas came home talking about the inflation rate!” Smithson interjected. “All of a sudden, these kinds of things were important to him.”
From left: Becky Pelizzari, Will Heynes and Matthew Stocke at home with their host family. Pelizzari is from Italy, and Heynes and Stocke are from the Isle of Jersey. All three students came to Baker City, Ore., as students in the Oregon International School.
Courtesy of Elizabeth Smithson / OPB
As Smithson and DeVore have noticed changes in their own students, they’re also helping expand the world for the students they’ve hosted. Students visited the Oregon Coast, or Multnomah Falls. A group of students went to the Pendleton Round-Up. They’ve gone hiking, camping, and ridden horses.
“It’s kind of bittersweet, I mean obviously we all miss friends and family back home, but almost feels like we’re going a bit too soon,” said Matthew Stocke, one of the Jersey students who stayed with Smithson.
Ciara Gabriel played golf with her host family “loads of times,” something she’s never done in Jersey.
“I’ve actually really improved my golfing skills and I actually want to play when I get back to Jersey now,” she said. “So even experiences that I can have at home, I have had here for the first time.”
She also had her first Krispy Kreme doughnut and tried clam chowder.
Students from the Isle of Jersey visiting Baker City pose for a group selfie.
Courtesy of Ros Martin, Kris McAdam
DeVore’s husband took Natnaree Tanrattanawong, the student staying with them, hunting. Tanrattanawong, who goes by True, took pictures of the deer to share with her family back home in Thailand.
“She said that was the most overwhelming experience she’d had, and she loved it,” DeVore said.
International students have also met other international students. Jersey student Esme Deer recalled talking with Ukrainian students about the conflict in their country.
“It was quite interesting for her to talk to me and tell me her story, because she had a lot of opinions and things to say, which is quite interesting to hear from someone who is actually from the zone of conflict,” Deer said.
“The world becomes both bigger and smaller when they get to experience something like this,” Smithson said.
Jersey students taking what they’ve learned back home
As the Jersey students head back home, some already have plans to come back. Joao Gomes is 17.
“I wish to emigrate to the U.S. after I finish my studies, because I believe it to be a great place to live and to work,” he said.
Elizabeth Smithson (not pictured) took these three international students on a backpacking trip as part of their visit to Baker City, Ore. Two of the students are from the Isle of Jersey and one is from Italy. Smithson's own son spent time in Jersey as part of a partnership between the country and the Baker School District.
Courtesy of Elizabeth Smithson
The students have learned things that weren’t available at their school in Jersey. Elizabeth Manning, 17, learned how to weld.
“We get to experience how a different community has different teachings based on what the community puts out,” Manning said.
Another learned about Native Americans after reading and discussing a Sherman Alexie book in English class.
There are also things the students want to bring to their home school, like mock trials and more involvement in school sports. That’s something Gomes, who is part of the student council at Hautlieu in Jersey, wants to bring up.
“I believe that we could, in theory, rent out a field and have a tournament between schools and be able to bring this hype and energy and positivity to the island, which exists here in this community,” Gomes said.
The unity and school spirit they saw in Baker City is something the Jersey students want to see more of at home.
