Tweet
GLOBAL REACH: GIRLS FROM ARMENIA, MOLDOVA, SOUTH KOREA ATTEND DIRIGO
By Eileen M. Adams, Staff Writer
Lewiston Sun Journal
http://www.sunjournal.com/oxford-hills/story/933163
Oct 28 2010
ME
DIXFIELD - Three multilingual young women are bringing a new
perspective and educational experience to Dirigo High School this year.
DaJeong Gong, 17, of South Korea, Hripsime Zohrabyan, 15, of Armeniam
and Lia Plamadeala, 17, of Moldova, are foreign exchange students
and visiting the United States for the first time. All three come
from large cities.
"I love it here," Zohrabyan said. "People are really friendly and
always willing to help. I feel like I'm family," she said of her
hosts who have two very young children.
She speaks Russian, Ukrainian, English and her native Armenian. She's
also pleased to be able to take French this year, she said, and hopes
to study economics in college.
For Gong, English isn't coming very easily, but she is fluent in
Chinese and Korean, she said.
Plamadeala speaks English, Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian.
All three girls are about to take part in the high school's required
volunteer program. Gong will volunteer at the Victorian Villa in
Canton, the town where her host family lives. Zohrabyan is volunteering
at Dirigo Elementary School in the kindergarten class, and Plamadeala
has volunteered at the local Seventh-day Adventist Church.
"I like helping people," Gong said. Her future plans include becoming
a physician.
Plamadeala said she likes the openness and acceptance of the people
in the area and the school.
"It's easier and much more fun that back home," she said.
Among her favorite classes are two that she can't get in Moldova:
forensic science and oceanography.
"I really like that stuff," she said.
All three girls are involved in school activities, with soccer being
an important sport for Gong and debate for Plamadeala.
Zohrabyan said she was surprised to learn how much people at Dirigo
know about her country.
"I expected them not to know anything," she said.
The three will attend Dirigo through the end of the school year.
Plamadeala and Zohrabyan will receive credit at their home schools
for the junior year. Gong won't.
All three said their courses of study in their home countries were
more difficult than the ones they're taking in the United States.
"Korean students have to study hard, to 10 p.m.," Gong said.
She has a younger sister who is a foreign exchange student at a large
high school in Florida.
When Gong returns home, one of her fondest memories will be the local
landscape, she said.
"Everyone has yards and tall trees and you can see lots of stars,"
she said.
From: A. Papazian
By Eileen M. Adams, Staff Writer
Lewiston Sun Journal
http://www.sunjournal.com/oxford-hills/story/933163
Oct 28 2010
ME
DIXFIELD - Three multilingual young women are bringing a new
perspective and educational experience to Dirigo High School this year.
DaJeong Gong, 17, of South Korea, Hripsime Zohrabyan, 15, of Armeniam
and Lia Plamadeala, 17, of Moldova, are foreign exchange students
and visiting the United States for the first time. All three come
from large cities.
"I love it here," Zohrabyan said. "People are really friendly and
always willing to help. I feel like I'm family," she said of her
hosts who have two very young children.
She speaks Russian, Ukrainian, English and her native Armenian. She's
also pleased to be able to take French this year, she said, and hopes
to study economics in college.
For Gong, English isn't coming very easily, but she is fluent in
Chinese and Korean, she said.
Plamadeala speaks English, Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian.
All three girls are about to take part in the high school's required
volunteer program. Gong will volunteer at the Victorian Villa in
Canton, the town where her host family lives. Zohrabyan is volunteering
at Dirigo Elementary School in the kindergarten class, and Plamadeala
has volunteered at the local Seventh-day Adventist Church.
"I like helping people," Gong said. Her future plans include becoming
a physician.
Plamadeala said she likes the openness and acceptance of the people
in the area and the school.
"It's easier and much more fun that back home," she said.
Among her favorite classes are two that she can't get in Moldova:
forensic science and oceanography.
"I really like that stuff," she said.
All three girls are involved in school activities, with soccer being
an important sport for Gong and debate for Plamadeala.
Zohrabyan said she was surprised to learn how much people at Dirigo
know about her country.
"I expected them not to know anything," she said.
The three will attend Dirigo through the end of the school year.
Plamadeala and Zohrabyan will receive credit at their home schools
for the junior year. Gong won't.
All three said their courses of study in their home countries were
more difficult than the ones they're taking in the United States.
"Korean students have to study hard, to 10 p.m.," Gong said.
She has a younger sister who is a foreign exchange student at a large
high school in Florida.
When Gong returns home, one of her fondest memories will be the local
landscape, she said.
"Everyone has yards and tall trees and you can see lots of stars,"
she said.
From: A. Papazian