Slovakian students hope to learn from their experiences

Juniors Karolina Kamenska and Katarína Skyvorá settle into life at Minnehaha

For junior Slovakian exchange students Karolina Kamenska and Katarína Skyvorá, both are working to settle into a culture that is very different from their own.

“You see all the new things, new people, new ways of living, and still you have to find the courage to start new friendships,” said Kamenska.

Both Kamenska and Skyvorá attend C.S. Lewis Bilingual High School in Slovakia and live in the country’s capital, Bratislava.

“Slovakia is very beautiful,” Skyvorá said. “There’s a lot to do.”

Kamenska agreed, and added, “We are small but grand.”

After hearing about the exchange program with Minnehaha Academy last year, Skyvorá knew that she wanted to apply, but for Kamenska it was more of a last minute opportunity.

“For me it was a coincidence because we have a homeroom and she told us that ‘Well, there is this Minnehaha thing and you can try to do it and maybe it will work out and maybe it will not,’” she said. “So I started writing the letter, and I spent three days correcting it and then I sent it and they were like ‘You’re coming with Katka.’”

While in America, Kamenska hopes to narrow down some of her interests.

Though she is interested in psychology and traveling now, when she was little she had a very different idea about what she would be when she grew up.

“I wanted to be a super model and a singer,” Kamenska said, laughing. Skyvorá added, “I wanted to be a gardener. I just loved flowers.”

Skyvorá is also taking classes she believes might become a part of her career after high school, such as art and design classes along with psychology.

Both Kamenska and Skyvorá are excited to learn more about the world and themselves.

“I want to learn more about myself,” said Kamenska. “What can I do, what can’t I do.”

Skyvorá added, “[I want to learn] to see the world as a bigger picture, because I am used to my side and my surroundings, but here it is so different.

‘It is really interesting to see how people think here. Maybe I will learn to see the world differently.”