Blue Earth Area exchange students Valeria Benayas (right), Rocio Ucelay (left), and Aurora Durante (center) received their Certificates of Completion for the BEA Foreign Exchange Program at the 41st annual Kiwanis/First National Bank Blue Earth Academic Awards and Scholarship Program on Friday, May 9.

As the 2024-25 school year comes to a close, Blue Earth Area’s three exchange students – Valeria Benayas, Rocio Ucelay, and Aurora Durante – had a lot to share about their experiences at BEA. All three students are juniors at BEA, with both Benayas and Ucelay hailing from Madrid, Spain, and Durante coming from the Abruzzo region of Italy.

Having spent a full year as students in BEA, all three girls were able to get involved with several extracurricular activities. All three are involved in track & field as members of the 4×100-meter relay team, Benayas and Ucelay competed together in volleyball, and Benayas and Durante both did dance.

“I really enjoyed doing sports here at BEA, especially track – all three of us are on a relay team together,” Benayas explained. “It was super easy to feel at home with the team; there was a good sense of community with our teammates.”

“Track is really nice because when you fail, you fail alone,” Durante added. “I mean, you’re also impacting your team, but track is such an individual sport that you’re really only competing against yourself.”

Benayas also mentioned enjoying several other events that BEA hosted throughout the year, including homecoming, prom, and attending football games.

“It’s interesting that all of the TV shows and movies portray prom as this huge event in American high schools, but having experienced it for myself now, it was a little underwhelming,” Benayas admitted. “It’s really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.”

On the flip side of things, Ucelay had high praise for the art curriculum at BEA, noting her interest in filmmaking and love of the arts.

“I really like that BEA emphasizes and supports students in the arts, and provides the resources and equipment that you need,” Ucelay explained. “Back in Spain, all of the arts programs are extracurricular, and you have to pay for all of the materials yourself.”

On the academic side of things, both Benayas and Durante were enthusiastic about the science curriculum offered by BEA, citing 2025 Teacher of the Year recipient Roger Schoenfelder – nicknamed “Mr. Schoeny” by his students – as a favorite among their teachers.

“Mr. Schoeny was my teacher for chemistry, physics, and anatomy – he’s awesome,” Durante commented. “One of the most memorable things from his class was getting to dissect pig fetuses. We would never get to do something like that in high school back in Italy. American science classes are a lot more fun and hands-on; it really helps you learn more than just a lecture.”

“High school in Spain is a lot more focused on lectures and theory, while college is where you get to practice what you’ve learned,” Benayas added. “Here, there are demonstrations for everything, and we have labs almost every week – it’s really nice to get to put the theory together with the practice at the same time.”

Despite their appreciation for BEA’s curriculum, all three students expressed some frustration with the way that classes were laid out with the block system.

“One of my complaints is that the school system here doesn’t go super in-depth on a lot of topics,” Benayas admitted. “Here, we only get to spend about a week on each topic because the classes aren’t year-round. Back in Spain, we get to spend multiple weeks on each topic, and go more in depth.”

“Personally, I think the block system has too long of classes – it gets to be boring if you already understand what’s being talked about,” Durante commented. “I’m used to classes being shorter back home, like what you call the hour system here.”

“I don’t mind the block system, because it means we don’t have as much homework, and I get to have more time in my art classes,” Ucelay responded. “On a shorter schedule, you have homework for almost every class, and by the time you’ve got your art supplies set up, class is already over.”

Outside of school, both Benayas and Durante have experienced several events together, including going camping, a Kelsea Ballerini concert, a Twins game, and a demolition derby.

“Our host families are related, so we’ve done a lot of events together even though we’re not living with the same hosts,” Benayas explained. “We’re also going to see Mount Rushmore soon, which should be interesting.”

“My host family really loves Great Wolf Lodge, so I’ve gone there with them several times,” Ucelay added.

Durante’s host is Tiah Weringa of Blue Earth, Perez’s hosts are Dillion and Kateri Johanson of Winnebago and Benaya’s host is Linda Larson of Granada.

While all three students were happy with their experiences with their host families, they also expressed that making friends in the States was more difficult than expected.

“It’s really hard to make friends here – in Spain, everyone is super extroverted, and here it’s almost the opposite,” Benayas commented. “People also tend to stay home a lot. In Spain, friend groups go out together on walks and get snacks and talk; here, you don’t see anything like that at all.”

“Unfortunately, I’ve learned that people here are kind of judgmental,” Ucelay remarked.

“In the end, you can only count on yourself,” Durante agreed. “Seeing how so many other people act around their own friends, it doesn’t make you super confident that they won’t act that way to you, too.”

Overall, though, the girls agreed that their experiences at BEA were mostly positive, and were deeply appreciative of the support they received from the school throughout their year abroad.

“I think what I appreciate most about BEA is that the school recognizes all of your achievements,” Benayas explained. “During the awards ceremony, all of us were recognized as exchange students, as well as for our academic achievements. It’s really nice to know that BEA cares so much about its students.”