Instead of another high school year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian Nathalie Viegas will be on the cheerleading line at River Forest Junior-Senior High School.

Similarly, Shizuka Shimotahira and Maiko Takada will be in classes at Crown Point High School. The Japanese students said they are excited about the prospect of spending a year learning first-hand about American culture.

These three teens are among dozens of foreign exchange students who are visiting the region this school year.

According to the Alexandria, Va.-based Council on Standards for International Educational Travel, Indiana in the 2008-09 school year hosted 1,014 foreign exchange students, ranking it No. 8 among the top 10 states. That's a decline of about 7.7 percent from the 2007-08 school year when the state hosted 1,098 students.

Illinois ranked No. 11 in the 2008-09 school year, hosting 797 students.

Chris Gaffner, a region coordinator for the Conneticut-based Academic Year in America, said she conducts several activities throughout the academic year to make it an enriching experience.

Some programs call for host families to be reimbursed while others are voluntary. There are also programs where the foreign exchange student's family pays for the visit, and others that offer scholarships, according to Bev Radar of Indiana Quest.

Viegas, 16, will enter River Forest as a junior. She said this isn't her first trip to the United States. A year ago, Viegas spent 15 days in Florida.

In Brazil, Viegas said she goes to school from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday from February to November. While her native language is Portuguese, Viegas also speaks English and French.

Viegas is staying with the Gaffner family and already is trading stories about her culture with Gaffner's daughter Lindsey, 14, who will be a freshman. Lindsey intends to apply to be a foreign exchange student in November.

Shimotahira and Takada met each other after becoming foreign exchange students in Crown Point. The girls are living with separate families in Winfield.

Both girls speak English but Crown Point High School Japanese teacher Noriko Wachowski was on hand to help translate.

Shimotahira, 16, will be a junior, and Takada, 17, will be a senior.

Shimotahira plays guitar in a band in Japan called Cos and hopes to continue playing guitar while she's in the United States.

Takada wants to be a lawyer and hopes to be able to use her English in her career. Shimotahira hasn't decided what she wants to major in when she graduates.

The United States does not send out as many students as it hosts. Indiana ranked 38th in the number of students who went to foreign countries last school year, sending 14 students. Illinois ranked 23rd, sending 29 students.

John Hishmeh, the Virginia council's executive director, said his agency is also in the midst of an outreach campaign to encourage Americans to host foreign exchange students.