Earlham Echo

November 25, 2025

Danilo Vulanovic from Montenegro and Jakub Novak from the Czech Republic are living in Earlham and attending Earlham School as exchange students this year. The boys have been here since August and will be a part of the community until the end of the school year.

Moving to Earlham has been an adjustment for both, of course, but for different reasons. Dan is from the capital city of Podgorica, population 180,000. But the change from a metropolitan area to rural Iowa didn’t catch him by surprise.

“They tell us that it’s more chance that we’re coming to a smaller city than bigger city,” said Dan. “It’s easier for us to adjust here because it’s smaller community. And my parents made sure that I spent enough time in the village during my childhood, so it’s not a huge cultural shock.”

Jakub, on the other hand, is from a town smaller than Earlham, about an hour and a half from the capital city of Prague. So what is it about Earlham that surprised Jakub?

“You even have a bank in this small city,” he said.

The process to become an exchange student is lengthy and difficult. Candidates must be high-school students (typically ages 15-19). Applicants are evaluated on academic performance, extracurricular and community involvement, English language competence, and personal/leadership qualities. Students complete an initial application that may include essays, teacher recommendations, school transcripts, a health certificate, and proof of English ability. A selection committee (often in the U.S.) reviews eligible applications and chooses finalists and alternates based on merit and readiness for a year abroad. Before departure, students attend orientation in their home country (covering U.S. culture, school system, host-family living, etc.). The program is highly competitive — only about 1 in 40-50 applicants are selected.

Dan got the idea to come to the U.S. when he was talking to a friend.

“On my summer job, my colleague was in Germany for exchange, and I was talking with him a lot because we were at the same place, working like 8 hours all day long,” he said. “I asked him once, if he would change anything about his exchange? And he said he should have to gone to the U.S. And then my home teacher sent us a link and said, we could apply if we want. So I know lots of people that applied and I was like, ‘This sounds perfect.’”

Jakub thought about coming to this country a little earlier in his life.

“It was a dream from, I don’t know, when I was probably 8,” he said. “I was like, ‘I want to go to the U.S. sometime.’ And then I saw it on the Internet and I was like, ‘Let’s try it.’ Every European kid wants to go to the U.S. for a year, or at least for like a month, to live your life and see how it is different. What do we have better, what do you have better.”

The boys have received a healthy dose of Iowa Nice since they’ve been here, and that has certainly helped them feel at home. Their fellow Earlham students have been friendly, and the boys are melding into friend groups.

“They’re super welcoming,” said Jakub. “All of them are friendly, but you have some friends that you talk to every day. Then you have some friends that you see at school, so you talk to them sometimes. That’s the main reason why we come to smaller cities. In smaller communities, you get to know everyone.”

Dan played football for the Cards this fall, and that helped him make friends and immerse himself in American and Iowa culture.

“I had no idea, honestly, about the idea of football rules when I came,” he said. “But I knew that I wanted to try and play. It was super fun and super cool. I like the team spirit and coming to the games on Friday nights. Going to the away games, like traveling in the bus with the team. Super cool stuff. Football stood in my heart and something that I’ll probably talk most about when I go home. I’ll probably buy a football to take home, and maybe teach people how to play, as well.”

The schoolwork and the school day itself are a little different than what Dan and Jakub are used to in their home countries, but they are adjusting fine. The question of whether school is more difficult in America or their home countries is always a good one to ask the exchange students. Dan is somewhat on the fence in answering that one.

“Before I came here, I heard rumors that school is easier here,” he said. “Which is true, kind of.”

In both Montenegro and Czech Republic, students are required to pick a career path at a young age and take courses specific to that job. Students can change course later if they like, but currently Dan is studying computer programming and Jakub is studying engineering.

“I have a lot of math back in my country,” said Jakub. “I’m doing calculus, and I have computer science. And a lot of physics. We don’t do many activities with the teachers. We just write notes down, take tests, then go home. School in our country is so long.”

Dan added, “We don’t choose subjects. You choose school, not subjects. And once you come to school, there is like 30 people around you in the same class. You go together for four years. You don’t change it, unless you change schools or something.”

Dan has been lucky to run into some folks from Bosnia while he’s been in Iowa, specifically at a Bosnian market and a restaurant in Des Moines. Montenegro shares a border with Bosnia, and as republics that were formerly part of Yugoslavia, the two countries share a lot of the same culture. Dan even met somebody from ‘back home’ at school, an Earlham student named Irhad Busnov.

“So the first person I meet in the school, it was a big guy, like he’s 6’4”, and he’s a freshman,” said Dan. “I came in and there was this big guy standing in the front of doors and he’s like, ‘You’re an exchange student?’ I said yes and he said, ‘I’m from Bosnia,’ and we started speaking our language. I was super surprised.”

Dan said he’s enjoyed sandwiches, especially a Rueben, made by his host dad, Nate Powell. Fast food restaurants exist in Montenegro, but not to the extent of the U.S. He has a few favorites.

“I like Arby’s. And Subway is super good, as well,” he said. “But Nate is super good at making sandwiches as well. That’s been my favorite.”

Unlike Dan, Jakub hasn’t been lucky enough to discover a market that sells Czech groceries, so he’s missing a few of his favorites.

“We have our national food, it’s pork and dumplings,” said Jakub. “It’s like potato dumplings and it’s with sauerkraut. And that’s the thing that I miss the most because you can’t do it here because you don’t have the ingredients that we use.”

Homesickness will always be an issue for a teenager who has gone a long way from home, but the kids are chosen for the program, in part, for their ability to manage it. Still, sometimes being away from your family isn’t easy.

Dan’s family was able to watch him give his presentation at the Senior Speaker Series at Bricker-Price last Friday and texted him afterward.

“Probably the biggest problem is that time difference,” said Dan. “So you have no idea what they are doing actually. Sometimes, just before I fall asleep, I see pictures of them hanging out somewhere doing something super fun, and I think man, I want to do something fun with them, also.”

Jakub has already traveled extensively around Europe as a member of a youth academy team for the Slavia Prague soccer club.

“I’m used to living without my family,” he said. “Because like with the soccer, we’re going all around Europe.”

Dan’s host family is Nate and Holly Powell and Jakub’s host family is Bill and Karen Fitzgerald.