Dear host family,

Thank you for considering my application, I am so grateful for your interest in potentially hosting me. In the brief presentation below I wanted to give you a quick overview of who I am and what really motivates me to spent the year abroad with you.

I’m Lorenzo and I am a 16 years old high school student doing competitive swimming.

I am quite determined and persistent in what I do as I am a swimmer, so being stubborn sometimes goes with the pack. But I am also flexible and adaptable to different situations as I have a sense for valuing diversity. I am an extroverted person on all occasions and I get along well with people that share my values of sport and fairness. Being a swimmer, I love the sea and water-sports, that I do for leisure, in the pictures you can see me having fun doing some windsurfing during my summer break.

I am from a town close to one of the biggest Italian city; it is in a nice green belt area full of city parks and surrounded by fields, despite being very close to Milan’s city center. I live in a house with a nice garden together with my mom Alessia, my dad Marco, my 13 years old brother Matteo and, last but not least, my fantastic dog Cecile, a Scottish Golden Retriever. I am attaching a picture of the 5 of us in our house.

Here in Italy I am enrolled in my third year of high school in my home town. In Italy we have several types of high school we can choose after middle school, providing different curricula depending on our interests, aspirations and capabilities. My type of high school is geared towards preparing for STEM university studies and I am also enrolled into a special program of Medical subjects at school, since I would like to take a biomedical degree at university. My favorite subjects at school are Biology and Physics, but I also enjoy a lot History.

I realize that I am quite privileged to have such a good high school in my home town as many of my class mates need to commute from the surrounding areas. However, being close to school really strikes the balance with my commitment to swimming, since in Italy schools don’t do sports and we need to arrange with sport clubs for doing sports right after school. So, having a convenient logistics really helps.

Swimming is my biggest passion! I swim in a quite big competitive team nearby my town. We train all year round, every day for about three hours a day and compete at local level from October throughout to June/July. This year I am also studying and practicing to get my lifeguard license. I attach some pictures about myself during a swimming tournament.

I started swimming when I was six months old (both my mom and uncle where in competitive swimming) and enrolled into a swimming team since I was 8 years old. Despite swimming being a significant time commitment, I could not imagine my life without constantly swimming as it gives me the right balance and mindset for everything else I do, such as school and friends.

One more thing about myself is music. I have been playing drums and piano for about eight years and went to a music middle school where piano was a core subject, together with playing in the school orchestra. I played the full Fur Elise from Beethoven for my mid school exam and I still continue to do some piano lessons to keep in exercise. I feel each music instrument has its own appeal and I appreciate the diversity of stiles that music offers, so while I particularly enjoy playing modern music on drums, such as Jazz/Blues, Rock and Samba, on the piano I like playing classical pieces only.

Now let me spend a few words on why I would really like to have this experience of studying in the US for one year. First of all, I am trilled to get overseas and far from home as I see this as a unique opportunity to challenge and stretch myself and see how I can adapt and thrive in a new environment. In this respect, if I am given the chance, getting the US high school diploma would be the best testament for my success and I will definitely work hard towards this goal. I also think that improving my English skills is important for my future, both for my further education and for future work. But I also strongly believe that by living in another culture I will grow and mature as a person in a way that otherwise would not be possible. I am also so excited about experiencing and living a new schooling system, one where sport is a key element of a person’s education and is given the recognition it deserves, so I really hope I can leverage my swimming skills at school.

I can’t wait to have this new and fantastic experience and meet with you! I want to thank you so much for allowing me into your family and make it happen. I am looking forward for the great year we will spend together!

Thank you so much!

Lorenzo