By December 18, since December 15 fell on a Friday, people at VA are focused on the end-of-semester exams. However, the morning announcement is, as usual for this date (and Ivy Day in April), devoted to college acceptance.

"Hello everyone, and today is a very special day for five of our students. For this occasion, they will announce where they will attend college next Fall" Marianne starts the morning announcement with the students concerned going in alphabetical order of last name.

"I'm Jacob Gency, I will be attending Columbia next year"

I knew Jacob more for his involvement in running and fundraising for the local chapter of Gamblers Anonymous than for the debate team! Steven starts thinking about his role in GA fundraisers, while the second student attending Tulane was a foregone conclusion.

At Wattpad High, there were so few students even attending college at all. The only Wattpad student I remember with any clarity going to anywhere remotely close to SLU's academic caliber was one of these "good girls". Now we have four kids in the top five percent attending top universities. Now that's somewhere I won't regret letting my kids attend, Marianne is remembered of the size of the difference between VA and Wattpad High in academic achievement and how that translates to college outcomes.

"I'm Henry May, and I will be attending Dartmouth next year"

"I'm Amica Neerwinden, and I will be attending the University of Chicago next year. Go Maroon"

"Last but not least, I'm Josiane Theriot and I will be playing quiz bowl for the Saint Louis University Billikens"

I'm happy for them, but I needed the announcement to end before I can start the final, Flo struggles to keep quiet before the exam starts.

By the end of the day, however, Marianne sends a reminder by email to the band, theater and academic team coaches for the opening of the school to the international student exchange markets. And what said markets can actually provide VA for the following year.

After school, there are several people in the meeting room, where the principal shows on the screen who VA can choose from.

"Welcome to this meeting regarding our preferences on the international student exchange markets for next year. It appears that the parish can cobble together three host families, two zoned to VA, the last one is zoned to Lacassine. So we'll review the files of whoever wants to attend VA on exchange next year" Marianne starts the meeting.

"As the student exchange coordinator, I am warning you: it won't be like being in a private school's admissions office. Not the least because the information contained in these files wouldn't be sufficient for admission to private schools" Ena warns the others in the room.

The others gasp upon learning Ena tacked on the student exchange coordinator duty.

What information they do have on the screen includes nationality, the grade range they're in, some likes and dislikes, as well as their goals for their stay in southwest Louisiana. What's seriously missing is their transcript because a GPA, by itself, doesn't mean much. No real indication of how they could mesh in class either, and certainly not of whether the student on exchange will be of any use to any of the six teams whose coaches are here today, Steven's disappointment starts showing when he reads the first file.

"Yeah, there's a lot of information missing if we wanted to use exchange students to fill gaps left behind by players graduating" the FFA coach is left wondering what info could be missing.

"Yeah, ideally, I want, in a debater, a genuine interest in either public speaking or sociopolitical issues, as well as some standards in at least one of language arts and social studies" Flo voices her concerns about the lack of academic information.

However, provided you're a good speaker as well as some knowledge of sociopolitical issues, extemp and Congress can both be learned in a matter of weeks, maybe orat. That would be the best fit to get the most out of a new player whom you know won't be playing for more than a season, Flo ruminates about the implications of getting a foreign exchange student to play on the debate team.

"Let's not forget about how some countries can get students to specialize as far back as high school. If one of the exchange students we happen to get is a math whiz, but cannot make heads of social studies at the level we teach it, the student is going to have a hard time" the band conductor comments on another aspect that's relevant to choosing who should attend VA on exchange.

"We will not rehash what was said during the day when the decision was made to be in the market for international exchange students!" Marianne warns the staff members.

"It's just that we have no clue as to whether they're any good as prospects for us, only a rough idea of the academic strength of the student" the theater teacher comments on the lack on information provided.

"Remember, however, that we have only two slots on exchange this year, so we must make these count" Ena adds another warning about this choice. "Student number one: Anastasia. Attending Kyiv number one eighty-nine, straight-A student..."

Warren seems to be the most interested of the gang in Anastasia, and then starts making his case for her to come to VA on exchange, about how the likelihood of playing quiz bowl goes up with one's GPA. But he knew also that high GPAs can sometimes include a grubbing component, or a cramming component. A fact that everyone else seem to harp on him for.

"Why would the student exchange organization provide us with so little info? We aren't even given these kids' transcripts! Presumably, the student exchange organization would need a transcript as well as letters of recommendation before the student arrives on this list of people we can choose from" Steven voices his complaint to Ena.

"Ena, if you don't have a satisfactory answer to why the kids' transcripts are withheld from us, we have no choice but to delay our choice of foreign exchange students!" Marianne yells at Ena, making the entire ordeal unpleasant to everyone involved in this process.

"I'm new to dealing with this organization, as well as in my role as an exchange coordinator. However, I acknowledge that a C student won't get the same experience abroad as an A student. Hence the need to cull transcripts first" Ena answers them, while looking for the prospective students' transcripts in the system.

While everyone else is frustrated by Ena, they seem to cut her some slack because of her being new in her role as an exchange coordinator. Transcripts must apparently be requested, and Ena wastes no time requesting the prospective exchange students' transcripts. And the link to do so is at the very bottom of the page for a given student.

If my experience dealing with the process at Wattpad High serves me, a school can't reject students merely because the students in the marketplace fail to meet a specific criterion. So transcript or not, we can voice our preferences, but there is no guarantee they will be honored, Marianne then starts reviewing the transcripts as soon as they arrive. Starting with Anastasia's.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Now that we have access to the candidates' transcripts, could you please forgive me? There's a first time for everything" Ena pleads with her colleagues.

"Finally, we'll have a better idea of where they will fit academically: as much as they want to get cultural exposure, we must keep in mind that, at the end of the day, they're still students first" Trent adds.

"You're forgiven. For best results, if we want to get the best out of what you kept referring to as the international student exchange markets, if we get two students, we want different nationalities" Warren, while excited upon reading Anastasia's transcript on screen, makes another remark. "But I'd want Anastasia to come here, a hundred percent"

"If I'm not mistaken, the marketplace screens students for personal qualities before we get to the stage of today" Marianne adds another remark that could help the coaches choose.

"I have another question: why did you invite only the non-athletic coaches to come here today? Other than LHSAA rules forbidding athletic coaches to make any attempt to recruit students for sports. You would think that teachers not fitting either category would have some concerns" Flo's question starts to make Marianne question the choice of attendees. "On top of that, we might have a vested interest in taking in a specific type of student the rest of the faculty doesn't!"

"You said it so yourself: LHSAA rules are a big part of it. That's why I had Ena in the role of exchange coordinator. However, inviting too many people would be a recipe for disaster. I personally feel like the non-athletic coaches are representative of the faculty since the issues raised here would be raised by other teachers as well" Marianne tries to defend her actions.

"Often straight-A students in other countries tend to be consumed by their studies, and probably in Ukraine as well" the head FFA coach seems to have his concerns about her. "If we take her, I hope we have another student whose likely range of study habits will make cultural immersion more feasible"

If my recollections of youth sports in other countries are correct, most of the time, sports are handled by out-of-school clubs. So regardless of the exchange student's academic strength, fanaticism towards the school's sports teams will cause a culture shock to a lot of them, Ena muses about what anyone they would pick today should be made aware of prior to coming to Jennings and hence to VA, while the others deliberate about whether Anastasia should come to VA on exchange. To be sure, here the fanaticism extends to the arts and academic teams, in ways that might not in, say, Kinder, Lake Charles or Church Point.

"The time for voting on Anastasia's file has arrived" Marianne announces to the faculty members, but doesn't vote on any given student.

Anastasia's application is, by a 7-2 vote, forwarded to the prospective host families of the parish. Both FFA coaches vote against her, but everyone else is enthusiastic about her potentially coming to VA.

The next candidate is not nearly as strong academically as Anastasia's, and is put in the delayed decision pile. However, Flo's eyes perk up when Francisco, the third applicant, arrives, and sees international relations as an area of interest. After the transcript is shown to the faculty members in the room...

"Out of the files arriving before us today, his is the one I believe is most likely to play for the debate team next year" Flo comments on Francisco, a Filipino applicant. "As an international extemper or as a Congress player most likely"

"I warned you about not treating the selection of exchange students as you would have private school admissions, and yet, this is exactly what you have been doing!" Ena scolds the remaining 8 teachers able to vote on these.

"We only want what's best for all parties involved!" Steven retorts. "Something's fishy, Ena"

"Marianne appears to be using the international student exchange markets as she would have free agency in professional sports!" the FFA assistant coach yells at the principal for the first time in the meeting.

At this point, the meeting degenerates and the teachers start fighting each other over the administration's motives. They didn't talk about the merits of this application much before it happens, but Marianne feels she has no choice. She then has a siren sounded, even though there is no actual alarm being triggered.

"Enough!" Marianne howls after the siren has subsided. "We shouldn't assume that because the candidates we choose today may be good fits for a particular team, they will actually join it! We have two more files to go, so we must vote on this one now! Those in favor, raise your hands!"

This file also passes 7-2. However, unlike Anastasia, the head FFA coach accepted him, and Ena was the one who voted against him.

When the meeting ends, with the third best choice so far being someone with mathletic potential, Ena makes a suggestion for Marianne going into the future:

"You must stop dragging the coaches into the selection process of admitting foreign exchange students to come here! You make me feel like the only reason VA should go on the international student exchange markets is to fill holes in the student body!" Ena starts quarrelling with Marianne.

"Why though? We lack year-on-year student body consistency in achievement and talent; the smaller the school, the more inconsistent student bodies are year-on-year!" Marianne retorts, while Flo feels like she must stay out of the quarrel since doing so would make her look hypocritical.

"What you're doing is unethical!" Steven yells at her. "What makes it unethical is the students will feel used by the host institution and start resenting both school and host country; this runs counter to what host countries hope to achieve on the international student exchange markets!"

At Wattpad High, the teachers didn't attempt to call me out on ethical issues of hosting exchange students. It seems like the only way Wattpad High is actually like VA is they are both Title I schools. Wattpad High's primary source of academic talent came from the international student exchange markets. Because of the dearth of academic talent, the teachers were desperate to obtain it by any means necessary, even if it meant me having complete control over Wattpad High's FES intake, and then pick the FES attending Wattpad High based almost entirely on their GPA and course rigor. I have come to realize that my old neighborhood didn't care about its high school, but Jennings is, simply put, fanatical about all aspects of its high school. And teachers can actually think here! So I no longer know how I feel about VA vs my old workplace, Marianne is reeling in from being told by teachers that her actions are unethical.

"Ena, what would you suggest for the next cycle?" Marianne asks Ena.

"I would want two more teachers, from different subject areas, on top of me, and exclude teachers with responsibilities over activities subject to the Rule of Two. This means one STEM teacher and one vocational" Ena explains how she would do it next year.

When you run an interscholastic team of any kind, and you want to see the team succeed, the temptation to seize opportunities that would help the team succeed will always be in the back of your mind. Such as getting foreign exchange students to play on the team next season. Especially since I feel like the team carries southwest Louisiana on their shoulders on the debate floor. My predecessor resigned because Marianne's predecessor seemingly neglected the team. I coached the team since I even started teaching here in the first place, and at every tournament, I had the impression that the team fights for its survival at every turn! Flo ruminates on this entire experience of serving on the foreign exchange committee. Then she asks a question of Ena about why she feels arts and academic team coaches must be left out.

"Why exclude teachers with responsibilities over activities subject to the Rule of Two?" a puzzled Flo asks Ena. "Sports I can understand because the risk of violating LHSAA rules is there, but there is not enough information given by the marketplace to gauge prospects for the arts and academic teams!"

"You're symptomatic of the problems with letting coaches have a say in the choice of FES! You wanted Francisco specifically because of his potential to play on the debate team!" Ena scolds Flo about her motives.

"How so? Exchange is more than just about the student and their host family; we want the student to get immersed in school life! On top of that, I can't take for granted Francisco will actually even come here, much less play on the debate team!"

"As the head coach of the debate team, you have a vested interest in wanting to host a student whose strengths lie in language arts and social studies! Also, our actions this year reek of our own inexperience dealing with the FES process! You're right in that student exchanges are more than just about student and host family though"

"The dice are cast, now we no longer have any role to play in who the host families are hosting" Marianne then takes notes.

But then these 3 return to their respective homes, two of whom have finals to grade. They do so in an attempt to recover from this meeting they deemed nightmarish, where the two teachers discover one more thing to be wary about regarding VA's principal.