Emma Tshumak, junior at Shadow Ridge, came to America as a foreign exchange student from Germany during the summer of 2025 to fulfill what she had been dreaming of since she was a kid. With the help of a chosen host family and her own parents, she was able to travel far to make it all the way to Shadow Ridge High School.
Tshumak had always wanted to come to the states just based on Americanized movies and TV shows she watched growing up.
“After I started cheer, I watched a lot of TikToks of people doing an exchange year and I think that’s when I really started wanting to do an exchange,” says Tshumak.
With cheer as another inspiration to come to America, she became a part of the Shadow Ridge Cheer Team as soon as she arrived and was welcomed with open arms.
“The cheer team has given me a lot of friends and my best friend here,” Tshumak explains. “I’m so grateful that I got the chance to meet a lot of people before school started because I wouldn’t have known anybody starting school and would have been alone the first days of school without it.”
With new friends by her side, Tshumak has gradually been able to navigate her new lifestyle in America. Shadow Ridge has provided her a lot more fun opportunities than her school in Germany ever had.
“Here you can choose almost all your classes and there’s a lot of sport and outside of school activities, my old school didn’t have that,” Tshumak states.
Another difference that Tshumak has had to become accustomed to is that people in Nevada don’t walk everywhere as much, the preferred transportation is a vehicle, not feet. Tshumak is used to walking everywhere and has experienced a lot of concern from people at school who hear about this.
The students and faculty aren’t the only people who shape Tshumak’s experience in America. Tshumak’s host parents play a huge part in how her experience goes.
“My host family makes this exchange extra special,” says Tshumak. “We made a list of things I wanted to do and food I wanted to try when I first got here and now we have almost done everything on that list. We also took a trip to Cali to go to Disney and Universal last weekend and that was so much fun.”
Through everything that Tshumak gets to do in America with her new friends and host parents, she’s excited to go home and tell everyone about it all. Germany doesn’t do much small talk but Tshumak is ready to talk about all of the big things she’s done.
