1/23/2009 - Exchange student continues a Keyser, Boggs tradition

By Bobbie Carpenter
Tribune Correspondent

KEYSER W.Va. – As the 65th American Field Service (AFS) student who has participated in the Keyser program since 1965, Chile native Nicole Silva said she loves the food here in America, with her favorite restaurant being McDonalds.

“I love the Big & Tastys,” said Nicole, 17.

As a senior at Keyser High School, Nicole has also enjoyed playing soccer for the girl’s soccer team, which was the first time she has ever played the sport for a school team.

“I didn’t grow up playing it because they didn’t have it for the girls, just for the boys,” said Silva.

Residing with Stacey and Mark Boggs of Keyser, Nicole is not the first member of the Silva family to be hosted by the Boggses.

In 2006, Stacey and Mark hosted Silva’s older brother, Sebastian, 20, for one year in the AFS program.

“We kind of knew her through Sebastian,” Stacey said. “We had her room ready, she was registered for classes, and we had talked to the soccer coach. We learned a lot from our first experience with Sebastian.”

The transition from Chile to America was a somewhat easy experience for Silva, as she “fit right in from the start,” said Stacey.

“She fit right in from day one,” said Stacey. “We picked her up from Loysburg, Pa., on Saturday. By noon on Sunday it was like she had always been here.”

Silva has learned many new things since she has lived in Keyser; one of them was how to do laundry.

“Back home my mom always did our laundry and the cleaning,” said Silva, about her mother, Lily. “My mom used to make our beds and do our laundry. Sometimes we had to clean our room. Here we learned how to do laundry and all of that.”

With four children of their own – Michael, 20; Robert, 17; Curtiss, 16; and Hannah, 13 – Stacey said having each child do their own laundry and chores is the only way the household operates smoothly.

Another aspect of American culture that Nicole has enjoyed is attending the Keyser High School football games.

“I love the football games,” said Silva, who has also attended a WVU football game. “They are my favorite.”

While in the United States, the Boggs family took Silva water skiing. Soon she will go snow tubing with their church.

As for the weather, which is pretty warm all year round in her home city of Calama, Chile, Silva said this is the first time in her life she has ever seen snow.

Although Silva will receive a high school diploma from Keyser High School upon graduation, when she returns home to Chile in July, she will have a year and a half left of high school left before she can begin her college studies in the field of engineering.

“I want to be an engineer like my dad,” she said.

The Boggses’ relationship with the Silvas is not over, however, as they plan to host Sebastian and Nicole’s younger sister, Gabi who is 16.
In addition, their son Curtiss will be spending a year in Chile with the Silvas after he graduates in 2010.

“It’s so weird, we have kids all the same age,” said Stacey, who added that Sebastian graduated the same year as her oldest son, Michael, and Gabi will graduate the same year as Curtiss, while Nicole graduates with Robert.

Stacey added that the AFS program, which is one of the world’s largest community-based volunteer organizations with over 13,000 participants, is a wonderful program for area families to be involved in. “I would recommend this program to any family,” she said. “Even if you don’t want to be a host, you can be a welcome family for a weekend. It is a great program.”

Dedicated to building a more just and peaceful world through international student exchange, young adults and teachers participate in AFS programs each year, according to the afs.org website.

Keyser is proud to have one of the longest running continuous AFS programs, hosting at least one student and sometimes three a year every year since 1965, when the program was started by Mark’s father, Dr. Harry Boggs, as well as Jane Liebig.

This article originally published here.