Visit Finland in a year and you might find Alli Hagman ’16 in the circus, swinging swathes of fabric as part of an aerial acrobatics act. For now, however, the 17-year-old Finnish exchange student is content here at LT, mastering her English, bickering with host siblings, and groaning about homework alongside the rest of the student body.

Given the opportunity to study abroad for a year, Hagman said she jumped at the idea of doing something different. Moving form a small-town school of 300 to the cavernous halls of LT certainly qualifies as different.

“Everything is bigger,” she said, though LT’s size has allowed her to meet new people and make several friends.

The trip has not come without adjustment, though Hagman’s host family, the Johnsons, hopes to ease the transition. Hagman lives, eats, and works alongside their four kids, and plans to vacation to Guatemala with the family this winter.

“We are blessed to have [Allie] in our household,” host mother Diana Johnson said. “She is a very sweet girl and we feel lucky to have her.”

For Hagman, fluent in Finnish, English, and Swedish, and working to master French, LT’s classes are not difficult. The main difference, she said, is that our school provides more homework. Despite this hurdle, Hagman has taken up new hobbies while here in the U.S., among them a fashion design elective and girl’s cross country.

“Fashion is always good,” she said, “And I like cross country because I used to run at home for fun.”

Still Hagman maintains that circus is her passion.

In the circus, she performs aerial acrobatics alongside partner Minttu Karhu, who has known Hagman for four years. A typical performance, Karhu said, entails a routine of aerial gymnastics, and utilizes full body jumpsuits. Karhu and Hagman do both pair acrobatics and flexibility together, with Hagman on fabric and Karhu on trapeze.

“Allie is so skillful and beautiful when she performs,” Karhu said. “We always have so much fun together.”

Hagman is unsure about the path she hopes to pursue in life, but said the circus is among her open options.

“I’ve got some of my best friends from circus, and there’s this certain feeling when you are in circus,” she said. “It’s like, you feel that you are a part of something.”