Clarine Zeelenberg is visiting the Virgin Valley High School from Eindhoven, Netherlands as an exchange student this year.  Zeelenberg is a senior who is currently studying Marketing, Geometry, US Government, Physics, Photography and Advanced Placement English at Virgin Valley High School.

She says the curriculum and grading process is much different than what she is used to in the Netherlands.  Her required courses in the Netherlands are English, Dutch (native language), and Math. Their GPA doesn’t follow the same A, B, C standards used in the US.  In the Netherlands the GPA system uses a one-to-ten scoring system with ten being the highest.  Zeelenberg is a 6.8 student and her marketing course at VVHS is her favorite class.

In the Netherlands, Zeelenberg enjoys playing field hockey, a sport very different than what she’s doing here in the US. Zeelenberg is on the Girls Tennis Team even though she has never played tennis before. Zeelenberg will be going to regionals very shortly with the entire team and says she is enjoying the experience very much.

She had the choice to go to Great Britain, Ireland or the US through the organization “Education First”, one of the very many programs available for students to study abroad.  Zeelenberg said she knew she was coming to the United States but didn’t know exactly where or even what state she was going to until 9 p.m. the evening before she was to fly overseas; her flight was 7 a.m.

At age 17, Zeelenberg knows exactly in which direction she would like her education to go.  When she returns to the Netherlands she plans to attend NHDV University of Applied Science in Breda, Netherlands where she will be studying to become a Facilities Manager.