In fall of 2025, I had the opportunity to welcome a group of Toyokawa exchange students to Cupertino. I was chosen as a student leader and was paired with a Toyokawa student, who shadowed me for two days at school. Overall the experience was very fun and informative. I learned more about my buddy’s culture and she got to experience life at a school in America. On the first day we met, despite our slight language barrier we got along immediately. By the end of it we had gotten close and I even made friends with the other exchange students and was sad to see them go. Saying goodbye was difficult.

Those two days really gave me a better understanding of how I can be more welcoming and how language barriers and cultural divides are easy to overcome. In the end, I was more than grateful to have gotten that opportunity and would definitely do it again.