For the last six m
For the last six months, a somewhat famous celebrity has been attending Lodi High School. Well, she’s famous in her native Italy.
At 17, Maggy Gioia has more than 277,000 international followers as an Instagram influencer. She’s also a model, and uses her Instagram account to share fashionable outfits and photos.
Last week, the Milan teen, who is part Indonesian, was in New York City at the behest of the Indonesian Embassy to cover New York Indonesia Fashion Week 2022 on her social media platform.
“At first, they told me they wanted me to share photos and stories for Instagram,” she said. “Then when I got there, they said I could walk (the runway), so I wore a dress instead of tweeds. I met many designers, models and people from Indonesia.”
Although it’s called “Fashion Week,” Gioia said it was more of a two-day affair, with Thursday dedicated to rehearsing and auditioning. The actual show was held Friday.
Not only is she an Instagram star, she’s also somewhat of an actor, appearing on television shows in her native Italy.
So how did she come to Lodi? Well, she wanted to experience American culture, and through Cultural Homestay International, was selected to spend the 2021-2022 year in Lodi.
“Here, high school is only four years,” she said. “It’s five years in Italy, so I didn’t want to do that. But the people really brought me here. Everyone is so friendly. People are very different in Italy.”
Gioia said the people back home in Milan — located in northern Italy — can be very close-minded and judgmental. Families are small, they’re more reserved, set in their ways, of which most of the time, she said, are the “old ways.”
However, in southern Italy, it’s the complete opposite, she says.
“They are more open, they use gestures when they speak, they have larger families and are just friendlier,” she said.
The weather in southern Italy is more agreeable as well, she said, which is just one of the many things she loves about Lodi.
“I love the weather here,” she said. “Milan is very cold. The neighbors here are friendly, it’s very spacious. Here, you have houses and yards, and there is space between them. In Milan, everyone lives in flats and apartments.”
She said the school systems are different as well. While American students move from class to class and see a variety of people throughout the day, Gioia said Italian high school students see the same group of classmates all day, for five years.
In addition, physical education is a required class in America, but she said it’s more like something students do “for fun” in Italy. Gioia said one of her favorite subjects at Lodi High is U.S. History.
“Right now we’re learning about World War II,” she said. “In Italy, we learn about the Nazis, the Holocaust, fascism. But here, they tell you about the Japanese internment camps. They tell you things we just don’t learn in Italy.”
While she enjoys modeling, acting and sharing fashion photos on social media, she said it’s not something she will be pursuing in the long run.
After this year, she will be moving to Phoenix for her senior year — she’s looking forward to the warm weather — and she is contemplating joining the U.S. Army reserves, or finding a career with the Italian Embassy or United Nations.
Whatever career path she chooses, she said she wants to remain in the United States.
“Being an exchange student is like being in a new world,” she said. “It really opens your mind to new cultures and people. And I’d like to be able to leave something of myself for the friends I’ve made here. The best way to learn things is not studying with books on a desk for hours. The best way to learn is through traveling and understanding people, cultures and places.”
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