Matilde Sardi, from Italy - at left and Lucia Serrano, from Spain, have experienced a very unique time at Lakeland High during this past year's pandemic.

Matilde Sardi was in a café in Italy on Aug. 17 when the get in touch with arrived.

Could she be completely ready to arrive to the United States the following week and continue to be for the faculty 12 months?

The 17-calendar year-outdated burst into tears.

“It was a single of the most effective moments of my everyday living,” Sardi remembers. “Seriously. I couldn’t have been extra content, I  had my visa and placement, and on the 24th of August, I experienced the flight and was below.”

“In this article” is Lakeland Higher Faculty in the Huron Valley Faculty District, the place she is encountering a calendar year that would have been one of a kind as a international exchange university student, but in a pandemic, has develop into even extra surreal.

Sardi is not the only international trade college student at Lakeland this year. Lucia Serrano, a 16-calendar year-aged from Madrid, Spain, also scored a spot.