Ivet Brugera Sanchez, 15, always knew she wanted to travel and study abroad away from her hometown of Barcelona, Spain. What she did not know is that desire would land her as Proviso Township High School District 200’s first-ever foreign exchange student.
“One day my dad asked me if I wanted to do that [a foreign exchange program] and I said ‘yeah,’ because you only live once,” Ivet said. “So I had to change to do it and it was one of the best things I could ever do.”
Sanchez, along with her twin sister, applied to be foreign exchange students through ICES USA, a student exchange and academic program, and after being selected she was placed with a family in Maywood while her sister traveled to Canada for her program.
Valentine Chavez-Gonzalez and her wife Angela Cosentino with Ivet in one of their family photos.
Here in Maywood, Valentine Chavez-Gonzalez and her wife Angela Cosentino were looking to open their doors to a student and hopefully recreate the positive experience Chavez-Gonzalez family had experienced when she was younger.
Chavez-Gonzalez said her family hosted a student through her sister, a connection that grew into a lifelong friendship.
“My sister is still friends with them to this day,” Chavez-Gonzalez said. “My sister is 35 now. They still send each other Christmas gifts, they still talk on the phone and we thought it would be really cool to give another kid that kind of an experience.”
The family applied and selected Ivet’s application from the first round they received.
However, the road to get Ivet here proved to be a little more challenging as Proviso had never had a foreign exchange student.
“There were no systems or processes in place to welcome a student like Ivet,” Chavez-Gonzalez said. “That took quite a bit of work and pressure, perseverance. … her local coordinator worked with us. We worked as best we could to provide the school the information they needed.”
As the clock ticked on the application due date, Chavez-Gonzalez said they almost told the agency to pass along Ivet’s application to another family because they did not want her to lose out on this opportunity. But the stars aligned and all signatures came together three days before the cutoff date to be able to submit the application in time for review by the state.
When the signature from Supt. Krish Mohip came through, Chavez-Gonzalez said she was “shocked and elated.”
Ivet celebrates her 15th Birthday.
Ivet got the news of her placement while she was on her family summer vacation in Norway.
“They told me I had a family and I had a week to get ready to leave,” Ivet said. “It was super-fast. I was happy, I was sad because I was leaving everybody. But I am really happy here and that is the important thing.”
She acknowledged her early feelings were bittersweet as emotions of leaving her family settled in and Ivet said she was homesick for the first week.
“I just left my family and my country but I know that I will see them again,” she said, adding that she just let herself feel all the emotions. “If you’re happy, you’re happy. If you’re sad, you’re sad.”
The first day of school at Proviso East was overwhelming, Ivet said.
“It was a really bad day, I am not used to such a big school,” she said. “I was super overwhelmed and I called my family to tell them I was crying in the hallway.”
But the East community was not going to let Ivet go through this alone.
Ivet recalled Principal Rodney Hull sitting with her in his office, working alongside her to change her schedule so she could have classes with friends she met during the summer in cross country and track, with other faculty rallying beside her.
One of those individuals was Coach DeVaughn Benion, said Chavez-Gonzalez, who took Ivet under his wing and worked overtime to ensure all documents were in order to get her to the school and on the team.
While never having participated in cross country or track, it was important for Ivet and Chavez-Gonzalez that she not only stay active but also be part of a team that would allow her to meet friends and be part of a larger community.
“If there are heroes and individuals we are personally so thankful for, it [is] Coach B and Coach Jackie and the girls on this team who have genuinely treated Ivet as a sister,” Chavez-Gonzalez said.
During the November school board, Hull introduced Ivet to the board, sharing her story.
“It is good that we can provide this experience for her,” Hull said during the board meeting.
The Spanish-speaking community at East helped for a smoother transition for Ivet, giving her the opportunity to communicate with others and grow her confidence while adjusting to school life in the United States.
“I really like it, it is a new experience,” she said. “I love the people there. I love my track team and my friends and I also love that there are Spanish speakers so I can always go talk to them and seem a little less far from home.”
Along with taking English Honors, Spanish, and learning about American politics, Ivet is staying busy and is looking forward to being at East for the entire school year and also exploring Chicago with trips to Millennium Park, the “cinema,” and adjusting to the cold weather.
Family life is also an adjustment and what Chavez-Gonzalez calls a “lesson in teenagers,” while always treating Ivet like their own daughter.
“Our family has embraced her just like she has always been here,” she said, adding she has chores just like every other teenager. “Our goal with this experience was to show off Chicago. It was to show off what we love about the city, the town that we are in.”
With deep ties to Chicagoland, with Angela growing up in Melrose Park, the family wanted to share those special places with Ivet.
“There is great pride for us to be able to take Ivet out and show her all the little things that make Chicago Chicago,” Chavez-Gonzalez said.
Taking the leap and “risk” to come to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student is one that Ivet will not regret, urging other kids to take those chances.
“Just do it because it is the best thing you could ever do,” Ivet said. “You have the opportunity and it’s okay to be sad and miss your family but they will always be your family. So just come here and enjoy it as much as you can because you could always be happy. I can be happy.”
