Exchange student feels right at home
Spokane’s reputation apparently extends to South America.
Jimena Mingorance, a Rotary exchange student from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, said she had the choice between several cities in the U.S. and Canada but elected to study abroad in Spokane because everyone told her it was “a great city.”
Spokane’s offerings have indeed been just what Jimena was looking for. She said she appreciates that unlike the concrete jungle of large cities with “lots of highways” such as Seattle, Spokane strikes a balance between big city and small community. The city, she adds, “fits my personality.”
In particular, Jimena, who hails from Bolivia’s largest city, has appreciated the ready access to the outdoors and nature. She has gone kayaking on the Little Spokane River with her host family and gone picnicking at Manito Park, for which she has a particular affinity, saying the park is, “a nice place to go and have peace.”
Jimena, a senior at Lewis and Clark, provides a marked contrast to her host sister, Alayna Becker, a Ferris sophomore and the daughter of Kris and Steve Becker, but the two complement each other well. They both said soccer is their favorite sport and traveling is their favorite summertime activity, although Alayna adds, “never the same place twice.”
By all accounts, the host family arrangement has also been a good fit. Jimena said the welcome reception and warmth of “all the people” in the community has impressed her most, especially that of her host family, which also includes two sons, Karsten, 17, and Jensen, 12.
The family, she said, has made her adjustment from the Bolivian tropical lowlands to the Inland Northwest a relatively easy one. “When you go somewhere where people give you confidence, it makes you feel good,” she said.
Alayna, who traveled to Germany with Rotary this summer, said their family wanted to host an exchange student “to make it possible for someone else to experience what I did.”
Alayna thoroughly relishes the role of host sister, taking Jimena to coffee house jazz concerts and to the mall for the apparently requisite trip to Abercrombie & Fitch to dance to the overhead rave music.
Alayna has even set up a homecoming date for Jimena. “It’s somebody she wanted to go with,” she added.
Both girls are actively involved in their schools. Jimena, who played for her school’s inaugural girls soccer team in Santa Cruz last year, is a defender for LC’s C-squad. She’s also a teaching assistant for Spanish classes and hopes to join the competitive cooking team, Pro-Start, next semester. Alayna is a member of Ferris’ debate and Action Teams and is also on the Teen Advisory Board of the local Planned Parenthood chapter.
The family tried to register Jimena at Ferris so she could go to school with Alayna and Karsten, a senior, but the school had apparently already reached its quota for exchange students for the year. Still, both girls agree that Jimena will have a well-rounded experience, cultural and academic, at LC.
For her part, Alayna only speaks glowingly of the experience. “It will change your life to know an exchange student,” she said. “It’s like living with a best friend.”