Housatonic student of the week

FALLS VILLAGE — Housatonic Valley Regional High School is located in the middle of the largest geographic school district in Connecticut, where it has the potential to be an island in a sea of picturesque hills and farms. Thanks to programs such as American Field Study (AFS) and our sister school relationship with the Shendong Experimental High School in China, our students experience both the beauty of the immediate landscape and the wonder of the wide world.This year, we are privileged to bring four exchange students to Housatonic, including Peitong Jing, who comes from Shendong. She has embraced the challenge of making new friends here, and she astutely recognizes the importance of such life lessons in addition to her academic assignments. Peitong possesses a wisdom beyond her years, which is reflected in her appreciation of the totality of her experience here. She enjoys the active, energetic mode of instruction that she has encountered at Housatonic, yet she also recognizes the benefits and efficiency of traditional lectures.Family is important to Peitong, and she spoke fondly of her host family, the Prentices, and the warmth of her reception by the town of Cornwall and the region as a whole — although she does miss her extended family in China, which includes six aunts and uncles and four grandparents. Nonetheless, she is planning on spending another year in the United States and perhaps her years in college, as well, when she hopes to pursue a degree in social sciences at a Christian-affiliated school.Peitong’s time here adds to her travel experience, which includes visits to Austria, Korea and Shanghai, yet she was grateful for some touches of home from people such as Lisa Carter, the teacher coordinator of the sister school relationship, who not only speaks Chinese, but knows her homeland so well. She was also pleasantly surprised that Tom Krupa, our musical director, was familiar with her favorite instrument, the guzheng, which she has practiced since age 7. We are glad to have Peitong as a part of our Housatonic family, and we hope she feels at home here, too.

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