A Lifelong Dream: Exchange student Marta Goldoni is pursuing her dream of studying abroad in America

A tornado, some crops including corn and wheat and “The Wizard of Oz” — the first three things that popped up when then-sophomore Marta Goldoni punched the word ‘Kansas’ into Google — enough to make her start bawling.

Just before this, Marta was sitting on the school bus on her way to another day of high school in her home country of Italy when her phone vibrated. Marta was waiting to hear back from the Rotary Youth Exchange with the placement of her exchange year. When she looked down on her phone she saw the highly anticipated email — she was going to spend her entire junior year in the state of Kansas.

Kansas was precisely the opposite of where Marta was hoping to be placed. Her biggest fear when planning the exchange was to end up in a small town, without fast food, football games and school dances — all things she’d never experienced in her hometown of Mantua, Italy.

Nevertheless, Marta kept her hopes high. After all, she was about to achieve a dream she’d had since third grade — studying abroad in America.

Across the Atlantic Ocean was the other side of the exchange — sophomore Oliver Sanders and his family. Oliver’s mother, Christy Sander, reached out to Rotary Youth Exchanges because of something she saw in East’s school newsletter and when they got back to her they notified her about students who were traveling to Kansas in need of host families. 

For the Sanders family, the exchange was sudden. After signing up for the exchange in May 2023, the family would only have four months to prepare for Marta’s arrival.

One student, in particular, was a girl from Italy, and coincidentally the Sanders family had a vacation planned to the country that summer. The Rotary Youth Exchange paired them together and the Sanders family visited Marta and her family in her hometown to break the ice and have a chance for Marta to meet them before the school year started. 

After meeting the family, Marta couldn’t wait to spend her junior year in Kansas. The Sanders explained their lifestyle in Kansas and eliminated Marta’s worry about missing out on Chick-fil-A nuggets and Prom, she was thrilled to spend her junior year with the family and their three kids who are all around her age.

This now gave Marta only a couple of months to prepare for her year in Kansas, over 5,000 miles away from her friends and family. Marta was especially sad to leave her grandparents because of the bond Marta shares with them. 

“I was prepared [to leave] because I knew for a long time that I was going to one day do [the exchange],” Marta said. “The saddest part was leaving my grandparents because I’m really attached to them.”

During her eight-hour flight from Venice, Italy to Atlanta, Marta passed the time by reading over the letters her friends wrote her before she left. Once she arrived in Atlanta, her nerves started to kick in — it didn’t help that her flight kept getting delayed. But as soon as she boarded the plane to Kansas, she fell asleep and slept the whole 2 hours due to the jetlag.

“In that moment, I realized that I was actually on the other part of the world without anyone, but I wasn’t afraid,” Marta said. “I was really really excited.”

Oliver quickly introduced Marta to his friend group when school started up. Now, they all enjoy introducing her to American teenage staples like driving around the area — which Italians can’t do until the age of 18. Going to the mall and fast food restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell. Marta also likes sharing the differences between Italy and America with her new friends, including sophomore Lily Ives.

“We asked her some different questions and had her compare America to Italy in different ways. And the differences are so insanely absurd.” Ives said.

Marta has a schedule with classes that suit all of her interests as opposed to the Italian school system where the classes are based on a subject like mathematics, science, or language which the student picks at 14. Marta chose a science-based subject so most of her classes at East are geared towards the science field.

Outside of school, Marta is on the East tennis team, attends football games with her new group of friends, and is looking forward to attending Homecoming — her first-ever school dance.

“There are a lot of things that I was excited for in America,” Marta said “But most of all I would say Prom and Homecoming.”