The Heartland Beat student of the month is Alessandra Canetta, a senior foreign exchange student living in rural Henderson and attending Heartland Community School this year. She arrived in the United States back on July 31st to live with her host family Brent and Tara Swartzendruber on their farm southeast of Henderson. She is a very exuberant soon-to-be 18 year old who still has to pinch herself that she really is living her dream in the United States.
“It has felt like home and that I belonged here from the minute I met them,†exclaimed Canetta who seems to have found the perfect fit here in Nebraska. Although she misses her family back in Fucecchio, Italy, she has not experienced any homesickness during her time here. “I always dreamed of visiting a foreign county since I was a sophomore,†said Canetta.
Her mother wasn’t too sure if she would be able to handle such a long separation from her home and family so she set up a trial two-week study program in England for her daughter as an experiment. She loved her time there and thoroughly enjoyed meeting people from other countries. After this experience, she and her mother were convinced that she could handle being a foreign exchange student.
School at Heartland is much different that what Canetta was used to in Italy. The biggest difference is in the way the school day is structured. At home, she would often stay in the same classroom for five hours with different teachers coming in. She prefers the American way of shorter class periods and changing rooms. While at Heartland, she has enjoyed participating in chorus, volleyball, and taking American Government and Art classes. Right now she is unsure of what her major in college might be since she has broad interests ranging from the sciences to creating and drawing comic strips!
She admits that she became very nervous prior to actually leaving Italy, but her anxiety was short-lived once she settled into her new home. “I have made so many good friends here that I do feel like this is my home right now,†said Canetta. She is able to Skype her family about once a week helping her to keep in touch. Her father is an engineer and her mother a writer, and she has one younger brother still at home in Fucecchio. Her hometown is south of Florence in the Tuscany area.
When she returns to Italy, she will have to complete one more year of high school before pursuing college. Her time here has been so meaningful that she hopes to return to the United States for college. Congratulations to Alessandra Canetta for being chosen as this month’s Heartland Beat Student of the Month.
Written by Shannon Siebert
