By: Anisha Saddy
This year, the Ardrey Kell student body has grown in both size and diversity. Students have been introduced to remarkable individuals from places all over the world, who have made the decision to become a part of the AK family and live the American experience. Chiara Basile is a bright, fun-loving teenager who has recently joined AK as a foreign exchange student and is living with her host family in the Ballantyne area. She has traveled to America once before, but this is her first time ever in North Carolina.
Basile is originally from Naples, Italy, and is an ambitious sixteen-year-old. In the future, she would like to pursue neurosurgery, as she has held an interest in the field from a young age. After this year, she will have to return to Italy in order to complete her thirteenth year of schooling.This is a standard in European education systems– the completion of thirteen grades as opposed to twelve in the US, in order to graduate secondary school.
Once she achieves admission into one of Italy’s 25 schools of neurosurgery, Basile will complete her six-year Medicine and Surgery degree and proceed to participate in the five-year neurological training program. Although she knows it will be a long road, she believes she will make her dream a reality with her hard work and passion for the field of surgery. She is both confident and optimistic in achieving her goals.
Being a student at Ardrey Kell has overall been a challenging but enjoyable experience for Basile. Currently, she is enrolled in AP Biology, Honors Forensics, Gym and Honors English IV. AP Biology has been the most rigorous, but she says she knows it will be rewarding as the skills she learns in the class will help her greatly toward what she needs to know as a neurosurgeon.
Her favorite subject thus far has been Forensics. “I love to analyze a situation and use reasoning to fix a problem that needs to be solved,” she explains. “Mr. Rosse, my instructor, is also very entertaining and he makes the class something to look forward to going to every morning at 7:15!”
So far, Basile has attended two football games (one of them the annual homecoming game against West Meck High School) and the homecoming dance. She has also visited many shopping malls and SCarowinds, which was an experience she would love to repeat. She is an example of an Italian girl living and learning about the American experience and culture.
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