The Oakdale (Calif.) Leader
Fort-five years ago a 17-year-old girl by the name of
Monique Pilklewicz of Strasbourg, France embarked on an adventure that not
only changed her, but also helped shape the person she would become.
In 1958 Pilkiewicz was chosen to be among 93 participants to
travel to the United States as part of the American Field Service (AFS) program.
She traveled by boat to New York and then by plane to Oakland.
Her final destination was the home of the family of Bob and Jane Marcus of
Oakdale. She the first foreign exchange student to attend Oakdale High School.
“It looks very modern and I think it is a nice school. I have
never been to a co-educational school before as there are very few in France
before university age,” Pilklewicz said of her impressions regarding Oakdale
prior to her first day of school, Aug. 28, 1958. Now, 45 years later during
a return visit to OHS, Pilkiewicz said that the word “Oakdale” serves as her
e-mail password. “It means that much,” the former student said of her
affection for the small town.
The OHS alum visited the high school Friday as a guest speaker in
the foreign language classes. More than 500 students studying French and
Spanish congregated throughout the morning in the OHS library to hear the
former student speak of her AFS experience and how it shaped her, as a person.
“AFS and Oakdale have changed my whole like,” the visitor said to
the students. “Traveling to another country and living with another family
helps you correst false ideas you may have about other countries.”
Pilkiewicz now lives and works in Geneva, serving as a translator
for the International Committee fo the Red Cross,the founding organization of
the American Red Cross. She speaks four languages.
"It took ages to get here," Pilkiewicz said. She was referring
to the different -- now and then. Nobody I knew had ever been to the United
States. Travel then was so much different than now. We came by boat to
New York and then plane to Oakland. Then on the return, we all (other exchange
students) ride back to New York be bus. We traveled in two buses for six
weeks. Stopping along the way to stay with different families."
Pilkiewicz’s host family left Oakdale in the early 60's, but the
student stated she still maintains in close contact with the family. Of
her return to Oakdale, she said that it was something she had wanted to for
quite some time. After discussing the trip with her husband, she made the
decision to contact classmate Melinda Owen.
“I received an e-mail from her which read, “Your trip to Oakdale,
Hooray!,” Pilkiewicz recalled.
“I was thrilled,” Owen said of the return of her friend.
Your school system is so much more fun than ours,” Pilkiewicz
told the OHS students. “In Europe, school is for studying, period.”
“I love the movie ‘Grease,’ because it reminds me so much of what
it was like when I was at Oakdale High,” she said. “To this day, I can still
recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I love America and Americans and whenever I
can, I educate my friends on what America is really like.”
And perhaps the words which best describe her feelings were
written 44 years ago as they appeared in the 1959 Oracle.
Well, I really like everything here. I am sure that I will never
forget this school and my American family and I will be terribly homesick for
Oakdale when I go back. I will bring a lot of good memories and at least
I will be able to tell people in Europe what Americans are like – really nice,
I think.”
