At Christmas the dorm clears out at Cotter, but in June the class of 2017 will clear out of Winona to pursue studies around the USA and the globe.

Checking in on the class of ’16, it seems most are adjusting to their new schools quite well, especially those that were admitted to the most difficult universities.

Cotter has a long history of boarding students, primarily from other countries, on the current Cotter campus.

According to Mrs. Lisowski, Cotter Schools started receiving international students from 1992.

As far as Mrs. Olson knows, “Our educated guesstimate of number of international graduates is 345 since 1996.”

Name: Sun Ah (Victoria) Shim

City and Country: South Korea

University: School of the Art Institute of Chicago

“I attended Cotter for four years, graduating in 2016. Cotter has prepared me well for college education in several ways. The senior capstone project was perhaps the most practical assignment to develop my researching and writing skills.

“I have been keeping in touch with a few friends at Cotter through phone calls, emails, and social media. I truly miss the life at the Cotter Residence Center, especially times when we sit around that circular dinner table, with friends and residence mentors,  catching up on each other’s lives. I also miss having assemblies at Cotter, since there are not many opportunities at my college to gather up with people in the community.

Mrs. Forney: “Victoria is encouraging. She is a hardworking, always be able to see hardship as obstacles to overcome. She is resilient and determined to succeed!”

“I am currently attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and planning on transferring to the College of St. Benedict for this coming spring. I am very excited to join the new community where I wish to continue pursuing art education while being involved in sports,” Shim said.

“I am very thankful for the great quality of education, as well as the sense of community, I had experienced at Cotter. “

Name: Hao Zhang(Michael) Deng 

City and Country: Xiamen, China

University: University of Rochester

“I am now in University of Rochester at New York. I had been at Cotter for 3 years from 10th to 12th grade. It has been okay for me to start my college life. I most enjoyed the “personal freedom” in college. But “projects, papers, and tests” make me feel tough.”

Dr Ordal: “ The main things I remember of Michael is that he is always focused and intelligent.”

“Although I am now separated with my classmates, I will connect with them through Wechat(Chinese Messenger), Facebook and Skype every week. I failed to recognize anyone from Cotter on campus. When recalled my high school time, the most important part that Cotter prepared me is American language and culture so I am comfortable talking to local students. I missed the dorm, friends, teachers, and my tennis coach,” Deng said.

Name: Jing Lun(Sean) Xue

City and Country: Beijing, China

University: University of Toronto

“It has been tired and tough for this year because we have a curved grading system and no snow days. But different from Cotter dormitory, we have no curfew,” Sean said.

Mr. Haun, “Sean was talented in class. And he will talk about ‘Age of Empires’ with me. He was always polite and had a great sense of humor.”

“I keep in touch with Cotter friends almost every week. During this Thanksgiving break, Michael came to visit me in Toronto.  Both of us really miss Dr. Ordal and the snow days.”

Name: Feng Bo Ma 

City and Country: Xi’an, China

University: Rutgers University 

“I am now in Rutgers University in New Jersey. Things went fairly well but they made me busy and tired. The best part of college is the access to nice dining halls, nice gyms and nice professors and teaching assistants. But quizzes, tests, exams every week are pretty tough,” Ma said.

Mrs. Schorn-Hoffert, “Fengbo was in German class for two years. He’s interested in the history and culture of Germany. I appreciated that he really tried to use German to talk to me.”

“Although I am now in college, I keep communicate with friends from Cotter almost every day. And in Rutgers, I met with Jay and Steve who are also Cotter graduates.”

Name: Jin Kyu Kim 

City and Country: South Korea

University: University of California-Los Angeles

“Although not everything turned out as I expected this year, it has been pretty good so far. The best part of college is that we have so much freedom that we can plan our own lives here. But waking up early is the toughest part in college life. I can’t believe how I woke up at 7 in the morning every day when I was in Cotter,” Jin said.

Mrs Corcoran: “Jin always had a smile on his face. He worked really hard and we all know that he’s smart”

“I have to say that Cotter helped me make better decisions in life. I miss teachers and my friends at Cotter the most. Cotter should encourage students to do well in classes and to participate in various extracurricular activities so that their chances of getting into college can increase.”

Name: Seo Youn Oh, a.k.a. Albert

City and Country: South Korea

University: University of California- Berkeley

“Everything is good in college. 100% freedom,  you don’t have to go to class, a lot of diverse people both character wise and ethnic wise, taking classes that you want to take, being taught by sagacious, well-known professors. I contact my old friends from Cotter quite often by using Facebook messenger. There are Mark Chang and Songhee (Julia) Hyoung from Cotter in Berkeley but I did not have the chance to meet them.

I spent three and a half years in Cotter. I would like to bring up some suggestions for Cotter. Maybe more of AP hardcore classes such as AP Chemistry, more of in-depth classes, encouraging international students to take Spanish or German classes, incorporating more of college-style teaching, teaching student how to get up again after a failure, letting student self-studying, having a Mr. Reigstad style grading system.”

Mr. Costello: “Albert was an excellent student. In English class, he has an exceptional vocabulary bank because he prepared so thoroughly for SAT and ACT. He is very friendly with everyone, whether in the dorm or with local students. In cross country, he was great teammate and leader.”

“I missed the Cotter community, dorm food (just kidding LOL), dorm kitchen and Hyvee (for fresh food, fruits, and vegetables).

The last thing I want to say is that ‘Thank you Cotter for everything!’”, said Albert.

Name: Ruo Hong Guan

City and Country: Shenzhen, China

University: University of Massachusetts Lowell

“I am now in Lowell, Massachusetts, attending university. Overall it is going pretty well, but I face some challenges. For the classes of my major, anatomy and physiology is a challenge class for me. I have to memorize many anatomical and biological terms. Psychology is an interesting class, but also is a difficult class for me. I made more friends and joined the badminton club. I now live with seven people who majored in music in a suite. Most of the people live in the suite with me play instruments and it is very nice to listen when they play music. I can also travel to Boston during weekend, because my college is close to Boston. I also enjoy the food of the dining hall. The suite is so crowded. After people hold party in the suite, the suite is dirty and messy, and no people want to clean up. As I mentioned before, anatomy and physiology is a challenge class for me. There are so many information about the function of human body and body system, and I believe those knowledges are more complex and specific than what I learned from biology class at cotter.  

I mainly use WeChat and facebook to communicate with my friends at cotter.  

I am going to say not often. Sometimes I will send messages to my friends at Cotter, because I need to focus on my study and I do not want to always bother my friends,” Guan said.

Mrs. Stevenson: “Guan was a hardworking student. He took the US history three times including one independent study. He also discussed with me about how Chinese government work which is very interesting.”

“I miss Mrs. Stevenson and the history class at Cotter. As a freshman I have to take history class this semester, but the history class is boring. I do not like the teaching style of my history professor, because she only read off the information from the slides and her notes. I just write down  the notes during the history class, which makes me to feel boring,”  Guan said.

Name: Yuri Ohguro

City and Country: Kanagawa, Japan

University: Chuo University

“I am now back to my hometown, going to attend Chuo University. I experienced a lot of things this year and there are lots of changing in my life.  Such as, I graduated Cotter high school and I passed the university exam, so I’m gonna be university student next spring!

I contact friends from Cotter once a month or more by Messenger or Line! I also can know what are they doing by FB!” Yuri said.

“Yuri has a soft voice and lower tone. She didn’t do a lot of talking in class. But she’s a hard worker and did very well,” Mr. Roeckers said.

“Cotter prepared me well, because when I was first year  of  Cotter student, they helped my English skill and Cotter dorm provided me some nice foods!! I think Cotter knows about international students, so I didn’t confuse about things which is for international students such as I-20 and passport.I miss friends!! especially dorm friends !”

“Everything is going well this year, and I am going to college in March. I just met Matthew Park, Nick Chang, Mike Kim, Sam Kwon yesterday. I connect with my friends at Cotter very often on Kakaotalk (Korean social media app), Facebook and by phone calls,” Shin said.

“I thought Shin was a wonderful person. He was very helpful to others. It is my pleasure to teach him,” Ms. Hohnstadt.

“I think Cotter is doing their job. I had interviews with college professors and they said the education system Cotter has is very well organized. I was one of the students who wanted to take AP Biology so if have more AP class would be good.
Cotter was like my second home. I was having pretty tough time when I was young but Cotter people were very gentle and kind. Maybe 5 years that I spent at Cotter? It was my pleasure having Cotter people and friends from all over the world. I hope, one day, we all meet and recall some memories we had together, ” Shin said.