EXCHANGE STUDENTS: Jamal Adams
Jamal Adams, 17, came to Goessel from Peterborough, England. His city of 160,000 is approximately 40 minutes away from London by train. Traveling by train to other cities once every two weeks is not uncommon for him.
Adams lives only four miles from his high school and hops on the bus (public transportation, not school bus) for the twenty-minute drive. In his grade there are about 140 students, and he attends the smallest high school in town. Grades eight through twelve are taught in this school building. His school is ranked as the third-best school in the country, judged by standardized test results.
Adams finds American classes easier, in some ways, than classes in England, but some courses are taught differently. That has made this year a bit more difficult.
"In England, I will score high on math tests, and so I feel that math is my strongest subject," he said. "But in the U.S., I was getting Cs occasionally."
This student from England found American History enjoyable.
"Mr. S.T. (Wes Schmidt-Thiessen) made history fun," he said. "I didn't know anything about American history before coming to the states."
Students from Adam's school regularly study at home about twenty hours per week. In Goessel, he estimated that he needed to spend about three to four hours at home to get his homework done. Most of the time he could finish his work in school.
When he returns home, Adams will have two more years of school left. Then he'll go on to university.
In England, school rivalries aren't the fiercest around. Club sports have the strongest competition. Adams participated in swimming, basketball and track as a club sport, but he also enjoyed the school sports of soccer, cross country, track and rugby.
"When I was in tenth grade, our rugby team was ahead of a neighboring school 62-0, and I went for one more score," he said. "The other team tried to keep me from scoring and piled on top of me, which broke my leg. I missed eight weeks of basketball because of the injury and have never played rugby since."
Adams was a key part of Goessel's cross country team that advanced to the state. Adams also played a lot of junior varsity basketball, suited up for varsity basketball, and is contributing to the success of this year's track team.
Adams has been living with Peggy Froehlich and Javan Fields at the east edge of Goessel. Froehlich has been very faithful to videotape Adam's activities.
"I do this mainly for his family in England," Froehlich said. "They don't use VHS equipment in England, so I will send the original tapes with Jamal, and they can slip the little tapes into their video camera and play them on their TV directly from their camera."
Froehlich said that she has been to ball games, running events, school plays, and even dances.
"I even have a little bit of the junior-senior prom on tape," she said.
Adams looks forward to viewing the tapes with his family when he returns to England.
In England, Adams lives with his mother and father, his 19-year-old sister Lamees, his 13-year-old sister Emily, and his 5-year-old brother Saleem. His uncle once came to visit with them and ended up staying for a year and a half, but most of the time, his is a family of six.
His father owns his own business as a engineer. When large firms have projects that need done, they will contact his father to figure out how to tackle the project. Adams' mother used to be a nurse, but she now works as a manager in his father's business.
The population of Adams' city is largely from Pakistan and Italy. After the attacks of Sept. 11, "there were gang riots in my town immediately following the attack," he said.
Adams misses the big city at times and has had to make adjustments in order to feel comfortable in this small community. One of the good things about the Goessel school, he said, is that you can greet and get to know all the students.
"In my high school, when outside of the building, there are some students you will not make eye contact with or they will pick a fight with you," Adams said.
His advice to other students from England coming to the United States?
"Be prepared to eat a lot," he said.
Jamal Adams will participate in Goessel High School's commencement activities on May 18.
