Each year, the Breck student body welcomes a group of students from all over the world. This year, we have five students from China, the Czech Republic, and Russia. To understand what their experiences are like, I interviewed Matilda Krondakova ‘26, Valentyna Panikova ‘26, and Olivia Liu ‘26.
To start, I asked Matilda about her time at Breck so far. She is staying with Maria Rohlfsen ‘26 and her family for the semester. Unfortunately, she is only here for one semester, so she will go back to her home country of the Czech Republic at the start of winter break. Matilda decided to come to Breck because of her school’s affiliation with Breck, and because she has known people who have come in the past and enjoyed their time here.
Matilda likes learning about the culture here, but she doesn’t like the amount of homework she gets. At her school in the Czech Republic, she takes ten to twelve subjects per school year, but combined they still assign less homework than Breck does.
Valentyna is also from the Czech Republic, and her school has been sending a student to Breck every year for almost the past ten years. She is staying with Max Vollmer ‘27 and his family for the school year. She loves being able to play sports at school, which she doesn’t have the opportunity to do back home. This year, Valentyna is doing volleyball, gymnastics, and possibly softball. She also loves the school food service here. She is confident she will miss the opportunities at Breck when she goes back home.
Valentyna misses the food and public transport of the Czech Republic. Her advice to the student body is to take opportunities to do exchange programs because she has learned a lot about herself from this experience.
Lastly, Olivia chose her path at the end of middle school to study abroad. She is from China, and she is staying with Charlotte Wilcox ‘26. Her school in China, RDFZ (whose dance groups came to Breck last year), is partnered with Breck, and she is here for two years. She loves being on the girls swim team because she has gotten the chance to swim and meet new people.
In contrast to Valentyna, Olivia liked the food at her school in China much more than she likes Breck’s. At RDFZ, she would have food delivered to school, which she would prefer over Flik’s food. She thinks that being an international student is difficult because English isn’t her first language, but overall she thinks it is worth it because of the new experiences and friendships she has made here.
All three international students expressed their appreciation for the welcoming Breck student body, and they all stated that they miss their friends and family back home. The Breck community is lucky to have them to enhance our understanding of the world around us.
