Sophomore Jaime de Sandoval de la Cruz was biking down High Drive with SM East parent and host dad Steve Stechschulte on a Sunday morning, heading over to his neighbor’s backyard.
“I've never seen a backyard that big and that beautiful,” Jaime said. “It is crazy. We pick tomatoes, apples, we pick the small tomatoes — cherry tomatoes. They were so sweet. I love it.”
Jaime had never been fruit picking before. In Spain, first-grade field trips to the orchard aren’t as common as they are in the United States.
Eager to absorb American life, Jaime, an exchange student from Madrid, Spain, has developed new routines and started unfamiliar activities — all to figure out what it’s like living in the U.S. as a sophomore in high school.
His host family for the school year is the Stechschultes — Steve, his wife Hannah, their kids, junior Nell and East alumni Peter, Henry and Ava.
Even though this is Jaime’s first time living in Kansas, it isn’t his first time living with a Stechschulte. Jaime’s family hosted Ava for a spring semester in 2023, during her junior year of college.
“I hadn't seen him since he was like 12 or 13, so I was really excited to see how he had grown up,” Ava said. “He would talk so much about wanting to come to the U.S. when I was there, and how much he wanted to spend time [in the U.S.].”
Ava remembers hearing Jaime’s English for the first time while living in Madrid. She was recording a Snapchat video to send to her friend back home when Jaime said a few words in English. When Ava told him his English was as good as her Spanish, he replied: “I can't speak English, it’s terrible.”
“Now that he's had to speak English more, he doesn't get embarrassed,” Ava said. “Breaking down that initial barrier, you have to embarrass yourself a little bit.”
The same willingness to learn helped Jaime complete his goal of playing American football after playing rugby in Madrid; he purposefully arrived two weeks before school started to join the JV football team as a punter and kicker.
He used to punt and kick for Arquitectura, a Madrid rugby team composed of the city’s best youth players. Even though American football evolved from rugby, there are differences for kickers; Jaime learned to kick with the ball held in place rather than simultaneously kicking while running.
“It's been hard for me to adapt to football,” Jaime said. “People think that [football and rugby] are very similar, but they're like so, so different. But I mean, people are helping me, and they're very patient with me. And [the] coaches are so patient, so I'm grateful.”
In Kansas, Jaime wakes up at 6:40 a.m., goes to school from 7:40 a.m. to 2:40 p.m., has a football team video session from 3 to 4 p.m. and then practice from 4 to 7 p.m. After that, it’s dinner, homework and sleep. In Madrid, his schedule started later — school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., rugby until 6 p.m. and then nearly five hours of free time before bed.
“It's good because I felt that [arriving] from school at 3 [p.m.] and being in my house from 3-11 will be so boring,” Jaime said. “So I have the day busy [in Kansas] because I'm doing [a] sport and socializing with people, so I'm grateful.”
On weekends, Jaime has been exploring Kansas City with the Stechschultes, going to a Royals game and visiting the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
“Jaime is shy, but he's very, very nice,” Nell said. “He's very funny. I would even love to do an exchange year with his family.”
Along with visiting a medical library and going on spontaneous bike rides with Steve, Jaime has also been teaching him Spanish. In the middle of a conversation, Steve will ask, “How do you say this in Spanish?” Often a long phrase, the two spend around 10 minutes until Steve pronounces the sentence correctly and understands it.
From sprinting up a hill to prepare for football to pointing out yellow school buses and cul-de-sacs, Jaime’s infectious enthusiasm rubs off on the Stechschultes.
“I don't know how to express with words, but people here are so good,” Jaime said. “I can see in small things like gratitude, respect. [In Kansas], people are so kind.”
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