Foreign exchange student excels at agriculture speech contests

GERONIMO — Last year, when Astrid Leloup, 19, made the decision to move to the United States for an exchange year as a senior, she probably didn’t expect to end up in a small town called Geronimo.

But she did, coming all the way from Belgium and across the Atlantic right here to Southwest Oklahoma. Equipped with more French than English language skills, but also a strong mindset and hard work ethics, Leloup managed to excel at Agriculture Education public speaking contests.

Dylan McGill, agricultural instructor at Geronimo High School, called it “a miracle story.” Although English is Leloup’s second language, she chose to put in the effort. The result: In around 15 speech contests, Leloup never placed worse than fifth place, and even brought a couple victories back home. She competed in the Ag Policy, Ag Business and Ag Science divisions, according to McGill.

“We were working on her speech and pronunciation for several days,” McGill recalled. “She’s one of the most hard-working students, I’ve seen nothing like her. She gets home at one o’clock in the morning and at 8, she’s at school for basketball practice. She has worked her tail off to be in the top five in every contest we have been to.”

The language barrier wasn’t the only problem Leloup faced.

“Public speaking scares a lot of kids,” McGill said. “She took it on. She’s very outspoken and also fascinated by agriculture. I learned from her passion.”

Leloup returned to Belgium at the end of the school year in May.