Local student to spend junior year abroad

HUBBARD, Ohio (WKBN) – A local 10th grader will be spending her junior year of high school more than 5,000 miles from home.

Thursday is Hubbard High School student Gabi Gasser’s final day of 10th grade. The Hubbard Board of Education is celebrating Gasser for being the only student selected nationwide for a full scholarship to become a foreign exchange student.

“I feel really special,” said Gasser. “Like I mean, it’s a big deal. Only one person out of 800 people.”

The program costs $15,000, plus expense money every month.

“And I said to her, we can’t afford that,” said Gabi’s mother, Amy Gasser. “I’m sorry dear, you have to win the scholarship.”

Gabi took a shot and applied for an intercultural exchange program and was the only student in America picked for the program.

“My dad didn’t want me to go period,” said Gabi. “But my mom said she has to get the full scholarship. She’s not going to get it. And I did.”

Gabi was adopted from Guatemala as a 1-year-old. Her aunt and uncle host exchange students and that’s where Gabi got the idea. Guatemala is not one of the options for studying abroad.

“I picked Argentina because they are relatively the same. They aren’t 100% the same, but it’ll teach me more about my culture and people,” said Gabi.

Gabi speaks some Spanish but says she wants to learn it better. She’s giving up a lot at Hubbard, as part of three sports teams. Her friends think it’s a cool opportunity, but are going to miss her.

“My close friends are going to miss me. They keep telling me every day that they don’t know what they’re going to do without me. But a lot of them think it’s like really cool for me to go and they keep asking questions like ‘What do they learn down there?’ Like, I’ll learn. I have no idea yet,” said Gabi. “I think it will be scary. I’m actually really scared to go and be in a school where I don’t know anyone and barely know the language. And I’m going to have to do schooling in a completely different language.

The trip starts in August with a 13-hour flight to Argentina and that’s just the beginning. The exchange program lasts until June.

“Oh Mom is going to be a wreck,” said Amy. “I think she will definitely be a more mature understanding, probably empathetic, young lady being only 17 when she comes back.”

Gabi says she’ll miss the prom the most, but the opportunity was just too good to pass up.

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