Ida Krook, New Jersey
I have so far spent a year in a town called Pennington in New Jersey. My school is Pennington School and I am planning on spending another two years here and graduate. I chose the school because it was highly recognized for academics and girls’ soccer.
At the start of my first year here, I arrived for a week long pre-season camp. This camp proved to be a wonderful opportunity to get to know my future teammates and other students as well before the actual school started. There were many other pre-season camps for other sports going on at a campus at the same time.
As far as academics go, I can tell you from my own experiences that it is something unique that you really have to experience to undertand. Small class sizes allow much more individual teaching and help to suit everyone’s individual needs than what I was used to in Finland. At Pennington, most of the teachers live on campus, or at its close proximity, which really allows the students to know them, and even their families, very well.
At first I was very surprised how active all my friends at school were with various after school activities. Personally I have played soccer, ran track and played lacrossse. Once the school’s soccer season was over, I also competed with the local travel team in the winter and in the spring. Through my participation in sports I have gained a lot of wonderful friends which have been a big part of this unforgettable experience that I have had so far. I am so happy that I chose to go with UP and that they helped me into this wonderful school.