Local family hosts former, current exchange students

Last Saturday, Dowagiac’s Mike and Marilu Franks made a trip to the Motor City for one of the nation’s premier exhibitions of one our most venerated industries, the 2015 Detroit Auto Show.

It was a special occasion for the couple’s two guests in tow with them that day, Isabela Medeiros and Oliver Schier, as the pair had never visited an auto show before — or, at least, not one held in North America.

The Franks household was quite a bit busier than usual earlier this week, as the retired couple welcomed Schier, an exchange student from the Newcastle area in Australia, into their home on Friday. Earlier last week, the two hosted Medeiros, a resident of São Paulo in Brazil, who had originally stayed with the Franks family over a decade ago while attending classes at Dowagiac Union High School.

“It’s been a really nice trip,” Medeiros said. “I went to the local Rotary meeting. I visited the shopping mall in South Bend, and I got to go to Detroit. And I love the snow.”

It is the fourth trip that Medeiros has made back to the U.S. since her yearlong excursion to the country from 2003-2004, when she stayed with the Franks for six months. The former exchange student recently became a lawyer back home in Brazil after passing her bar examination.

Her recent trips back to the region have gone smoother than the first time she visited the Grand Old City, she said. A second generation exchange student, Medeiros enrolled in a U.S. program in order to improve her English, a feat she found difficult at first.

“On my first day, when I arrived at the airport, I didn’t know how to answer anyone’s questions,” she recalled. “I thought ‘I can’t possibly stay here for a whole year.’”

Thanks to a pocket dictionary and some understanding new friends, though, Medeiros managed to overcome her initial troubles. Besides studying English, math and science at the high school, she was also heavily involved in several sports teams, such as soccer and volleyball, which she also played back home.

“Before I came here, I didn’t stray far away from home,” Medeiros said. “I had to learn how to be alone, how to be an individual. Today, I have friends my age who still don’t travel. But now, I travel all the time.”

For Schier, his trip to America’s heartland was motivated by wanting to get a firsthand look at the country, to develop his own impression outside of what is portrayed by the media.

“I was expecting people to be rude, but, outside a few people at the airport, that isn’t really the case from what I’ve seen so far,” he said.

Schier will spending a year studying in the country, and plans to enroll soon at Dowagiac Union High School.

While the language barrier naturally isn’t an issue, he’s still had to adjust to a few cultural differences during his short stint in the country so far, such as with our dietary and entertainment tastes.

“So far, I already I appreciate where I come from more, but I’m learning to appreciate this country too,” Schier said. “This experience is teaching me to see the good in everything.”

The Franks have been hosting exchange students from all over the globe since 1998, with their first guest hailing from Finland, they said. They continue to keep in touch with many of their former wards to this day.

“I think it’s the most amazing experience anyone can have,” Marilu said. “Many people think, ‘I can’t have guests in my house for that long.’ However, once that student walks into your home, they’re no longer a guest. They’re part of the family.”

Like the students they hosted, these past 17 years have taught them some valuable lessons, the most important of which is that, despite borders, language, and other differences, people share a lot of basic things in common.

“People are the same, anywhere in the world,” Marilu Franks said. “They all want the same things: a happy life, and good friendships.”