GHS exchange students experience rural Kansas life: Ksenia Dolgoushina
Ksenia Dolgoushina
Ksenia Dolgoushina, a 16-year-old Russian exchange student at Goessel High School, arrived in August. She came from one of the best schools in her town of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, where 150 students were in her grade.
Krasnoyarsk has a population of more than one million people — quite a bit bigger than Goessel's population of 500. Here in Goessel, Ksenia has been living with Steve and Sandy Banman and their family several miles north of Goessel.
Ksenia now rides a noisy school bus full of young children to get to school. In Russia, she could arrive at her three-story school building after a ten-minute walk.
Not every class is taught every day in Ksenia's Russian school. Some days she'd need to be in class at 8 a.m., and other days her first class might be at 11 a.m. In her community there are ten grades, and Ksenia will need to go to school for one more year when she returns to prepare for the entrance exams for university. If she passes the exams, she will receive her university education for free. Most students will graduate from the university in four or five years.
Russian students are each required to take a foreign language, and they can choose from French, English, and German. Ksenia decided on English after discovering that she didn't like French. Ksenia says that in the United States, students get to select which classes they want to take, but in Russia there are more required classes. However, each high school student is encouraged to pick an area in which to focus their studies.
High school in Russia is held six days a week.
"Saturday is usually not as difficult as the other days, because the teachers don't enjoy being in school on Saturdays any more than the students do," Ksenia said.
School sports are not a big deal at her school. The intense competition between teams happens among club sports, after school. At Goessel, Ksenia has participated in volleyball, basketball, and track (as the team manager), but she doesn't have the desire to play on a club team in Russia.
But during her time in Kansas, Ksenia has become a big fan of the KU Jayhawks basketball team. When the KU seniors were in Hillsboro, Ksenia got in line to get signatures from all six players.
Music is Ksenia's area of expertise.
"My parents have made me practice piano since I was 6 years old," Ksenia said, smiling.
She's used her keyboarding skills in a Goessel school play and with the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church youth group on Sunday mornings.
Ksenia comes from a family of four. Living in her home are her father, mother, and 13-year-old sister Lena. Her father works as a cameraman, and her mother is a journalist. Both parents work for the same television station.
Her family lives on the second floor of a ten-story apartment building. Ksenia's grandmother lives in the same city.
Because Krasnoyarsk is situated along the Yenisey River, there is more fresh fish readily available at the stores. Much of the food that Americans eat, such as McDonald's and Pizza Hut, can be found in Russia. Although there is a lot of soup and borscht available, Ksenia hasn't developed a taste for it.
Krasnoyarsk is in the eastern half of Russia, just north of Mongolia. It takes four hours by plane for Ksenia to visit her uncle in Moscow. The time zone her family lives in is 13 hours ahead of Kansas.
When the World Trade Center was destroyed on Sept. 11, it occurred in the morning for America, but Ksenia's family heard the news as they were getting ready for bed. Her grandmother was worried that Ksenia might be in danger, but a morning phone call from Russia helped assure her that New York was a long way from Kansas.
"My friends talked about the attack in their school in Russia, but they had a pretty good idea of the distance between Kansas and New York," Ksenia said.
What advice would Ksenia give to Russian students interested in coming to school in the United States?
"Learn English!" Ksenia said, smiling.
Ksenia will be a part of Goessel High School's graduation ceremony on May 18.
