Adelphe Cisse & Mike Bednostin. Photos by Lisa Schlager.
All season long, opponents took notice of two towering Trinity High School boys basketball players. It was hard not to.
At 6-foot-11, Mike Bednostin is a head taller than much of his high school competition. The center, a frequent double-double threat, came to Trinity this season via Canada from Ukraine. His teammate, Adelphe Cisse, stands 6-foot-7 and came to Trinity in April 2022 when his school year ended in the Republic of Congo.
They are the first two international students to play for Trinity’s highly successful basketball program in coach Larry Kostelac’s 40-year tenure. His teams, which have made it to 12 final fours of the PIAA championships, have won two state titles and 18 District 3 championships.
They are also just two of 10 international students this year at Trinity High School, located just outside of Camp Hill. In the past, Trinity has had as many as 30 international students during a single year. Even before COVID, those numbers started to drop, but Trinity is again attracting a diverse group of students from around the globe.
Historically, many of Trinity’s international students came from Asian countries. While it welcomes students from all countries, the Catholic parochial school was particularly interested in helping a student from Ukraine this year.
“What was really powerful for us was to have the opportunity to have these students come from underrepresented nations,” said Principal John Cominsky. “We’ve never had a student from sub-Saharan Africa. We’ve had students from Ukraine before, but not in this context,” referring to the war.
To Cominsky, it’s a coincidence that both are basketball players.
“Trinity has had dozens and dozens of international students who have never played a sport,” he said. “You’re as likely to become an Ivy League student from here as to play a sport.”
Yet Bednostin and Cisse do play basketball—and quite well. While both hope to use the sport as their ticket to an American university education, both care even more about their academics.
“I just wanted to come because I know that here I’m going to have the opportunity to do both academics and my basketball skills,” Cisse said. “I knew it would be great for me for my English, my education, my language.”
Bednostin echoed a similar sentiment.
“I hoped to go to college in the U.S., to get a full scholarship to play basketball,” he said. “My parents always told me to study. Education is very important. If you get a USA education, it’s going to be appreciated in all the world. Basketball is a great opportunity to afford it.”
Since coming to Trinity, they’ve made good on their basketball and academic goals, as both are honors students.
“They’ve been embraced by the students here because of their example, their work ethic, and their desire to be in this community as full-fledged students,” Cominsky said. “The kids love them. They have very active social lives. They’ve really taken to what our school community has to offer in many ways.”
Kostelac agrees.
“Although Mike and Adelphe come from vastly different cultures, they are very similar in many ways,” he said. “Both are very intelligent and goal-oriented individuals. They have excelled in the classroom in their native countries as well as during their time at Trinity.”
Larger World
Bednostin and Cisse may stand out the most in public, but Trinity’s other international students also make an impact.
Guillemette and Marie Guiguet are sisters from France whose father’s position in the French army brought him to the Army War College in Carlisle. They will graduate from Trinity in June, but, until then, they are immersing themselves in typical American high school life like the school musical, “Cinderella,” which they just appeared in.
“It’s a good experience to be in Trinity—one year to learn a foreign language,” said Guillemette. “It’s really interesting. I love to be in the U.S. I love your culture, the way you live.”
That’s exactly what Vice Principal Eileen Poplaski likes to hear.
“We say that we want our children to be lifelong learners and to have an understanding of the larger world,” she said. “I think that the best way that we can do that is to give them those social and friendship experiences with children who are coming, whether for a year or two or three, with children from other parts of the world who’ve had different experiences growing up.”
Another international student is Mike Johnson from Windsor, Canada, whose brother plays football for Penn State. Canada’s extended online learning during the pandemic led him to seek a school in the United States near his brother where he could learn in person. He plays football for Trinity.
Lily Yeo from Seoul, South Korea, graduates this year after spending all of high school at Trinity. She also spent time in Canadian schools before going to middle school in Korea. She’s involved in several school clubs and said that she feels connected to Trinity and will always consider it a home.
Other international students include Sua Choi of Korea, Carmen Castro Angulo and Claudia Lafuente Pantoja of Spain, and Miroslav Skabrada of Czech Republic. Sometimes, as in Skabrada’s case, students from abroad live with relatives locally.
Others come via agencies. Trinity’s international students typically get F-1 visas, as Trinity is a Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)-certified school. The Guiguets have visas through their father’s NATO status.
Public schools in the area generally welcome a handful of international exchange students each school year. Most come with J-1 visas, which means that they do not pay tuition to the schools, as they are part of a formally recognized cultural exchange program.
Hershey High School accepts as many as five international exchange students on J-1 visas each school year.
“We find this program valuable for all students,” said school Principal Lindsey Schmidt. “Students are provided experiences and opportunities that are vastly different from their experiences at home.”
On the other hand, as a private school that is allowed to charge tuition for students with F-1 visas, Trinity has the opportunity to welcome even more, which it embraces.
“When you walk our halls, there are kids of diverse backgrounds, upbringings and abilities, and they’re welcome here if they want to learn,” Cominsky said. “That’s the only caveat because it’s a challenging environment.”
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