Belgian Rotary Club Exchange Student Caroline Laurent to spend a year in Pincher Creek

Caroline Laurent
C. Davis photo

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Caroline Laurent is a Rotary Club exchange student who will be spending a year in Pincher Creek with three different families.  Laurent is from the southern part of Belgium and speaks French as her native language.  A friendly young lady, she seems to be genuinely thrilled to be here.


"I'm doing an exchange for the whole year.  I absolutely wanted to come to Canada," she said during an interview after watching the Senior Girls Dragons vs Hawks volleyball game earlier this evening.  She's been in Pincher Creek for about a month now and will be here until next July.

"I have three families in the year," she explained.   "The first is the Holoboffs, Then the Korbetts, then the Crawfords. My families are really nice."

Whitney Holoboff and Caroline Laurent

I asked her what was different here from her home in a rural area of Belgium. "The language was difficult, in the beginning, to understand the English.  The landscapes are different, the weather is different.  At home it's raining all the time."

"We have no mountains in Belgium, so I'm really happy  to see the Rockies.  I love the mountains."

Laurent seems to be quite fluent in our language, but she admits it was a struggle at first.  "I have learned English for three years at school," she said, also acknowledging she is now immersed in it.  "I have no choice now."

Laurent graduated from high school in Belgium prior to coming here, but attends Matthew Halton as part of the program "for the experience".  She said there are a lot of differences between her school experience here and in Belgium.

As to her other interests she said "I love running, but I don't do it here, for the moment.  Maybe later.  I tried different sports here, I tried volleyball, soccer.  I love trying lots of different sports.  It's fun. I love reading too."

"I had the chance to do water skiing with my second house family, and that was a surprise.  I really wanted to do that. It was really fun."

I asked if she was making friends here and she replied "It is difficult, but yes.  It takes time."

She met with Pincher Creek Rotary Club earlier this week and will meet other Rotary kids on Friday.

Salut et bienvenue au Pincher Creek Caroline.