Brown County High School

Spain vs US - High School Activities An Exchange Student Experience By Victor Moreno Morillo – Hello. My name is Victor and I am a foreign exchange student from Spain attending Brown County High School. I had the incredible opportunity of playing Soccer and Track and Field this year. In my opinion, so many people here take those opportunities for granted. That’s why I decided to write this article. Extracurricular activities at the high school are a great way for students to stay in shape, make new friends, and compete against others or themselves. From my own experience, high school sports in the US are amazing. People give everything they have to them (both athletes and coaches), and it’s really easy to bond with people after going through these hard times together. All of this and more just outside of the high school and for very little money. But, you probably already knew this, right? Now, as for how high school sports are in Spain. Well… if you are lucky, your high school may offer one sport or two during the whole year. But, the real story here is, they are so unpopular that only in my Senior year did I realize that my high school was offering Orienteering, the sport of navigation using a highly detailed map, as a sport. And that’s not your regular high school, which wouldn’t offer any sports at all. If you wanted to practice any sport, you’d have to sign up at a private club, which is both expensive and usually inconvenient. To this day, I still wish Spanish high schools didn’t focus only on studying and realized the power of sports in developing good exercise habits, friendships, and incredible experiences that last a lifetime. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t take the activities offered by the school for granted, as it is something that doesn’t really exist in other parts of the world. Thank you, Brown County high school, for everything!