On Aug. 3, 2016 junior Tuomas Hyypiä moved from Tampere, Finland to St. Louis, Missouri. Hyypiä is part of the foreign exchange student program in Finland. For the next the rest of the school year he will be living with senior Allison Flores and her family.

“I was very excited to come to America,” Hyypiä said. “My older sister was an exchange student in the United Kingdom so my family was really supportive of me going coming here.”

 In Finland the whole education system was very different from America. Instead of being in school from 7:20 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., you are allowed to pick which hours you could go to school. The whole education system is completely free, but extremely difficult to get into. After ninth grade you have the chance to apply to either high school or vocational school. In vocational school you learn a trade like plumbing, nursing, and builders. After you graduate from vocational school you go to work in that profession. After high school you have the opportunity to continue your schooling.

“The schools here are a lot easier. The only thing I miss about school in Finland is the lunches,” said Hyypiä.  

Hyypiä is Patricia and Allison Flores’ first foreign exchange student. To get into the exchange program, the Flores’ house had to be inspected and they had to go through background checks. They also had to take pictures of every room in the house, their family and their pet and send them to the exchange program. The whole process takes around three weeks. For Hyypiä, he had to take multiple tests and he could not have a criminal record. Once he was approved to participate in the program he could being looking at families and housing.

“I was inspired to take part in the exchange program from when I was in high school.” Patricia Flores said. “It was so cool to see and meet people from all over the world and I just wanted to be a part of the program.”