Meet Natalia, the first edition’s third prize winner!

Natalia Hryszko is a student at I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Adama Mickiewicza in Białystok. Her biggest hobbies are reading, drawing, and crafting room decor. She loves traveling and dreams about visiting all European capitals. Natalia learns three foreign languages: English, French and German, and hopes to study architecture abroad in the future.

In July, Natalia participated in a summer school program at Leysin American School called Summer in Switzerland (SIS). She told us what she liked the most about this experience.

 

  Before leaving for SIS, I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew that this camp would be nothing like the ones I had been to in the past. The first few days in Switzerland were a little stressful and in the beginning speaking only English seemed overwhelming, but thanks to my new friends and very helpful staff, I quickly started to feel at home in Leysin.

Each day during SIS was a new adventure! Parapenting above the mountains, wandering with best friends in Geneva, horseback riding, playing tennis for the first time, having fun in the snow more than 3000 m above the sea level and of course eating the best Swiss chocolate. Every night I was going to bed excited about the following day. Morning classes didn’t feel like school because I was learning about the things I am passionate about. Afternoon activities were definitely my favorite part of the day. That was the time when I could try new sports or just relax with my faculty family. After dinner, we had time for even more fun – discos, karaoke, casino night and of course the final banquet, it never got boring.

Weekends were the days everyone was waiting for. It was during the weekends when we had our excursions, which were nothing like any other school trip I attended in the past. My favorite was the one to the Jazz Festival in Montreux. We ate the best chocolate ice cream, listened to live music, shopped at the small stalls, and watched the sunset by Lake Geneva.

Now, when the camp is over, I am left not only with tons of photos on my phone, but also a group of friends from over 20 different countries and a lot of amazing memories.