Exchange Student Yini (Claire) Wu joins The Menard family for a year

By Colleen Gundlach

Chinese exchange student Yini (Claire) Wu poses with her American “sisters”, Celeste and Janelle Menard.

Celeste Menard is a ninth-grader who has studied the Mandarin language for the past two years and is “interested in all things Chinese,” according to her mother, Sharon. That helps to explain why, when the Menards saw an advertisement in Norfolk Now looking for families to host foreign exchange students, they jumped at the opportunity. The result is that a Chinese student named Yini Wu will be living in their home on Greenwoods Road for the next year. Menard says that her husband, Howie, is very interested in learning about world cultures, and thus was very receptive to opening his home to an exchange student. “When he saw the ad he said, ‘Great! Sign us up,’” she says. “He completely surprised me.” The most difficult part of the process was choosing the student. The Menards received biographies of six different Chinese students. The family wanted someone close in age to Celeste, and who had similar interests, such as dogs, music and running. “It was very hard choosing one and leaving the others behind,” Menard says. “Thank you for choosing me!” quipped Wu. Wu, who has selected Claire as her American name, arrived in Norfolk on August 14, just in time to join the Menard family vacation trip to Cape Cod. She almost instantly developed a sisterly relationship with Celeste, little sister Janelle and brother Bryce. “She fits right in,” says Menard. Wu came to America through the Program of Academic Exchange (PAX), a group listed by the Council for International Exchange, and registered with the U.S. Department of State. Its mission is to “increase mutual respect among the people of the world, to foster an appreciation of our differences and similarities, and to enhance our ability to communicate with one another.” Communication will not be a problem for Claire Wu because this 15-year-old speaks fluent English. She grew up in “Chairman Mao’s home town,” Changsha, where she attended classes through third grade, learning English as a mandatory part of the curriculum. Students in China are placed in middle and high schools, based upon their scores and aptitudes. They are allowed to request a certain school, but are not guaranteed their first choice. Wu’s high scores enabled her to be enrolled at her desired choice, the Shenzhen Foreign Language School. While she is living in Norfolk, Wu will attend Regional 7, entering as an eleventh grader. Though she is only the age of an American sophomore, Wu has attended school for 300 days per year, as opposed to the 180 days Connecticut students spend in the classroom. Wu is looking forward to meeting the friends of Celeste and Bryce and to “knowing more about American culture,” she says, adding, “I also want to improve my English.” Her dream is to be “a very good journalist.” As a mom herself, Menard has been thinking about Wu’s mother, and empathizes with her. “It is such a leap of faith to send your child to the other side of the world to live with someone you’ve never met,” Menard says. “But we will take good care of her.” Having three teenagers in the home all summer will certainly be an interesting challenge. They are all planning on keeping themselves occupied by hiking Haystack Mountain, going on a whale watch and, of course, swimming at Tobey Pond. In addition, Wu will be getting a first-hand taste of American economics at an American icon institution, the hot dog wagon, when she helps out at the family’s Village Hot Dogs stand. It is a lesson in free enterprise and gastronomy that she will most likely remember fondly when she returns to the Far East.