Centennial exchange student reflects before returning to Sweden

BY SEBASTIAN STUDIER PRESS INTERN

Swedish exchange student Saga Fahlgren made friends, faced difficulties, had fun and learned a lot while spending the 202223 school year at Centennial High School.

At a going away party, Saga and her mom Mia reflected on what Saga took from the experience made possible largely by the Chain of Lakes Rotary Club.

Saga believes that American high school is much different than Swedish high school in many ways, giving her a taste of something new and exciting.

Going to school in Sweden, in Saga’s eyes, is more like an American college rather than a high school. In Sweden, students choose an area they like to study rather than choosing their exact classes and students are usually with the same group of people for all of their classes.

Saga had a much different experience at Centennial, where she was surprised when she had classes with different people each class period.

Criminology class was interesting and enjoyable whereas classes involving language classes were understandably not as easy for her.

“I didn’t like my world literature class because it was so much old English poetry,” Saga said. “It was hard to understand.”

In addition to the differences academically at Centennial, there were differences that Saga noticed in student life.

Saga participated in cross country in the fall, nordic skiing in the winter and track in the summer for Centennial. In Sweden, the schools only had club sports that were not associated directly with the school.

The school spirit that existed at Centennial was a change of pace for Saga because schools in Sweden did not have the same type of culture. Pep fests and football games were both new types of experiences for Saga.

Saga met many new people and formed bonds with her teammates in sports, particularly her group of track friends who she spent time with outside of practice.

“When you move around in school, it’s hard to make friends, we don’t see them all day, so the people I spent the most time with was the team,” Saga said. “I had a group of friends in track and we had bonfires and played basketball.”

Along with good times, came some challenging ones as Saga was not allowed to drive in America. She always had to try and find a ride, and if she could not find one, she was unfortunately stuck at home for the day.

Saga is used to walking places and noticed the difference in American culture of everyone driving to get places rather than just walking.

It was Saga’s idea to participate in the exchange program and she made it happen.

“She started looking things up and she took contacts, and she fixed everything with her Visa, all that kind of stuff, “ Mia said. “She just sat there and arranged it all by herself.”

Through her exchange experience, Mia hopes that her daughter has learned that many more things are possible because of the initiative she took in her experience.

Mia also praises the work of the Rotary Club, which made this possible for Saga.

“I think it’s amazing that the rotary makes this possible,” Mia said. “It’s not just for Saga, it’s for everybody.”

Sebastian Studier is an intern at Press Publications. He can be reached by calling 651-2422775 or emailing intern1@ presspubs.com.