What’s the most impactful part of welcoming an international student? When host families and guests “connect and create relationships,” Anna Gergely says. “It opens your mind to a whole new perspective and thought process.” Now, she’s preparing for a delegation from Transylvania to visit.
Gergely and her husband, Istvan, both are natives of the Transylvanian region of Romania. After attending high school and staying with host families in Chicago, Illinois, she earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Evansville. Since then, she has spent 30 years living and working in the area, primarily in education and most recently at Evansville Day School as a Spanish teacher. The Gergelys have planned many trips for international students, most recently in April 2025, when 26 students from Gergely’s high school, Tamási Áron Gimnázium in Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania, visited Evansville as part of the Gimi2US program. In Romania, the program is supported by the Hungarian Medical Association of America Transylvanian chapter. Students traveled by bus to Budapest, Hungary, flew to Cincinnati, Ohio, via Paris, France, then boarded a bus taking them to Evansville Day School and their awaiting host families. The entire journey took 28 hours.
During their 10 days in Evansville, students stayed with 18 host families. Lauren Piekos, husband Chris, and son Elliott welcomed two students. (Evansville Living readers may remember Elliott, now 15 and a ninth-grader at Signature School, as a 9-year-old state-ranked chess player featured in the March/April 2020 cover story, “Cool Kids.”)
The family has hosted students from Ukraine, Germany, and Spain, and Piekos keeps in touch with all of them. While the spring 2025 hosting experience only lasted a week, Piekos believes any exposure to different perspectives always adds to your own.
“Overall, we were able to learn more about their perceptions of the U.S., and it led us to have meaningful conversations,” she says. The visiting students have advanced English skills in addition to speaking Hungarian. Although from Romania, the area of Transylvania from which the students hail once was part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, so Hungarian still is the primary spoken language, along with Romanian. Piekos and Gergely both say Hungarian is one of the hardest languages to learn as a non-native speaker.
The itinerary had students joining classes and extracurricular activities at Evansville Day School, Reitz Memorial High School, and North High School; taking part in workshops at the University of Evansville; and visiting Escalade Sports, BFiT, Eastland Mall, Showplace Cinemas, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, and the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science. Students spent their last evening at a farewell barbecue.
“In such a short time, the students felt welcome,” Gergely says. “When I saw students leaving their host families, I knew this was going to make a huge impact on everyone involved.”
Students toured Indianapolis and Chicago before heading back to Transylvania, where word spread and other high schools began reaching out to arrange similar partnerships. “It was so successful and impactful, it made me realize this was powerful in so many ways. I realized we could continue,” Gergely says.
This year, a Bolyai2US delegation from Bolyai Farkas Elméleti Líceum in Târgu Mureș, Romania, includes 50 students and four staff members. After arriving in Evansville on March 30, students will attend classes at Reitz Memorial High School and workshops at UE and the University of Southern Indiana. They’ll experience many of the same activities and destinations as the 2025 group, then tour the state and U.S. capital cities before departing April 11 for Transylvania. Piekos is excited to host another two students. “We get to experience a new group of students together. It gives you more empathy for people and broadens your perspective, bringing another culture and country home,” she says.
Twenty-five host families are lined up, but Gergely hopes another 5-10 will open their homes to the students. “I think our Evansville community has the opportunity to shape how others think about the U.S.,” Piekos says.
Those interested in hosting — preferably Evansville-area residents with high school-age children — can apply online. Another trip is scheduled for Sept. 13-27 for students attending Márton Áron Főgimnázium in Miercurea Ciuc, Romania.
