Dakota DelValle

2012-13 Outbound to Finland

Hometown: Key West, FL

School: Key West High School

Sponsor: District 6990, FL

Host: District TBA, Finland

Dakota's Bio

My name’s Dakota DelValle and I’ve moved more times than there are letters in my name. The next place I will be moving to is Finland from 2012 to 2013 during my senior year of high school. I currently attend Key West High School, the southernmost high school in the continental USA. At Key West High School, I am in four clubs and on the school’s paper “The Snapper.” I live with my mother, my father, and occasionally my brother when he’s home from college. I frequently write, play ukulele, indulge in food and video games, knit, and practice my language skills. My parents were both in the Navy, so they have gotten their taste of the world, which has followed them throughout life. Subsequently, my brother was born in Germany and lived there with my parents for two years after. From those years, my family has kept up with the German language, throwing words and phrases here and there every so often and seeking out the best German restaurants and food.

Over the past few years the Spanish language emerged in our household from the classes I have taken and from what my father has picked up while working in South American countries. It is interesting that Spanish is not spoken in our house anyway as my father's family is from Spain and Cuba. Now joining these languages is the difficult, but beautiful Finnish language, and I couldn’t be more excited. Hearing my parents’ tales of far off lands peaked my interest for new cultures outside of the U.S. as I yearn to travel to places that I have never seen before. Finland is a place that no one in my family has ever been to before so I will be the first to mark the territory as part of the DelValle’s adventures, ensuring that the legacy of our nomadic family will live on.

Dakota- Outbound to Finland