When it comes to participating in extra-curricular activities at Windom Area High School, Belgium exchange student Eva Lonchay has maintained a low profile. You didn’t see her on the stage, in a concert or on an athletic court or field, although she did give basketball a go, but discovered it wasn’t her cup of tea.
That doesn’t mean she’s spent her year abroad — in Windom with the Kyle and Kimberly Pillatzki family — with her nose strictly in a book or holed up in her room. In fact, the highlight of her 2024-25 school year in Windom had everything to do with extracurricular activities. While you didn’t see her participating in sports, she certainly was in the stands cheering on those who were.
“If I wanted to go to a game, I could just go in,” says Lonchay, a 17-year-old from Liege, Belgium, about 45 minutes east of the capital city of Brussels. “I think it’s just part of the experience, to just go to a game, meet people and cheer for your team. We just don’t have that in Belgium.”
For more on this story, please see the April 23 edition of the Citizen.
