New student Legvold journals his experiences abroad in California

By Cassandra Kellum
Online Editor

For most Mira Costa students, summer break is relaxing and fun. Junior Ole Jo Tørud Legvold instead said goodbye to Norway and hello to the United States. Legvold used his writing skills to adapt to a whole new learning environment and different country.
This past summer, Legvold traveled from Norway to Manhattan Beach and transferred to Mira Costa for school. During this transition, Legvold began writing down his everyday experiences at Mira Costa and differentiated the two countries in regards to schooling.
“In comparison to Norway, Mira Costa is very different because of the difference in evaluating student comprehension,” Legvold said. “Here at Mira Costa, all everyone cares about is the scale and getting a high number on that scale. In Norway, there is less focus on a formalized rubric, and tests are based on what important information the student displayed. In other words, most of the tests have no correct answer.”
Legvold then started to discover his passion for learning. He decided to dedicate this newfound passion to documenting his experiences living abroad in the United States and attending an American public high school.
“Before I left Norway, the thing I was most nervous about was all the uncertainty that comes with moving to a new place,” Legvold said. “I was nervous about meeting new people, going to a new school.”
According to Legvold, his development of productive and structured work habits that he learned in Norway has helped him a lot at Mira Costa with tackling the significantly larger daily workload he has.
“The most challenging thing for me at Costa has been the language barrier and getting used to the teacher’s expectations. I still somewhat struggle with aspects of academic English,” Legvold said. “Also, in the very beginning it was hard to meet what the teachers expected of me, so in the beginning I ended up really overworking myself trying to do everything as thorough as possible, even though most of it needed a lot less time and attention.”
Legvold holds a passion for English and writes as a hobby. By exploring the academic extremes and varying relationships at Mira Costa, Legvold is able to make connections and compare the similarities and differences between his school in Norway and Mira Costa.
“My general perception of U.S. schooling is that it’s overall not better nor worse, just different. Costa has a hard working staff who are en
gaged in the students and are constantly in their field of study,” Legvold said. “We have a group of 2,600 kids who are actively seeking guidance and information from the staff, which is really cool.”
Legvold is fascinated with the Mira Costa writing program, and he says that he is lucky to take part in many English-oriented classes. He likes that he can observe his experiences almost like a journalist.
“I [may possibly] start a club to make everyone comfortable and share my experiences I noted from my transition process,” Legvold said.
Legvold’s favorite part about Mira Costa is the constant support that is available to him all across campus. By noting this throughout his experiences and taking his life in Norway into account, Legvold wishes to help other new Costa students with the transition process as well.
“In my short time so far at MCHS, I have felt that the school would benefit from some communication, and I wish to bring that upon incoming new students to help them settle into the campus,” Legvold said.
With the help of his social skills learned in Norway, Legvold noticed and noted through his experiences that the students at Mira Costa are overall nice and have great respect for each other. According to Legvold, he enjoyed meeting new people and is pretty open to new friendships with new students.
“My advice to any other student starting at MCHS is to be open to change, new people and new advice,” Legvold said. “Also, make sure you focus on finding a good group of people you like hanging out with so that you have people to help you get through the big change, as well as to have someone to answer your thousands of questions.”