Rachel Stober attended Kings High School during her freshman and sophomore years. But for her junior and senior years, she has left the Kings district, and America entirely. Rachel’s parents are missionaries who work with the native people of Papua New Guinea, a small island country south of Australia.
“The climate is so different over here,” said Stober. “It’s very steady. The temperatures always stay in the eighties, but it does get cold sometimes at night.”
This isn’t the first time Stober has lived on an entirely different hemisphere. Every two years since she was born, she has traveled back and forth from the missions community in Papua New Guinea to Ohio. She’s attended a different school every time she was in the states.
Rachel described school on the other side of the world as completely different from what we are used to in America.
“Our school is an international school with missionary kids from all over the world. This includes New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Canada to name a few. Plus, we attend year round school, getting four to five week breaks at the end of every quarter.”
While Stober’s parents are out in the local villages translating and helping better the lives of less fortunate people, she says she typically stays at a local “hostel”, a place where kids of missionaries can stay while their parents are out on missions.
“School is much harder over here. They hold way higher standards than American schools do, so I stay at a hostel so I can get my school work done,” mentioned Stober.
Stober also said that she misses her sophomore teachers the most, like Dustin Goldie and Carol Hardesty. Goldie had Stober for Honors World and American History.
He recalls “She was so worried during her first few weeks of freshman year about understanding American History since she hadn’t formally learned about it while being in another country.”
But Goldie also knew that she’d do just fine.
“It’s extremely tough to overcome any kind of adversity. But Stober asked lot’s of inquisitive questions. That, mixed with always having to adjust to new learning styles every two years makes her ability to deal with change so great.”
Stober concluded by saying that she misses all her friends she made this time around in the states.
“They made America worthwhile and fun.” she said.
That’s part of the reason why she hopes to come back to America in two years to attend college and reunite with her friends. Until then, she is looking forward to her school’s senior class trip to the beach and reuniting with her old friends in the missionary community.
By Madison Lunsford