From September 1-11, Lexington High School welcomed 20 students and five chaperones from Guadalajara, Spain. The students came as part of an exchange program that has been a long-standing LHS tradition.
“This exchange program started almost twenty-five years ago, and it is a collaboration with one of the oldest high schools in Spain,” Ryan Casey, the program director and a Spanish teacher at LHS, said.
The program gives students from both Guadalajara and Lexington the opportunity to travel abroad while staying with host families. The Spanish students recently visited Lexington in early September, and this February, students from Lexington will travel to Madrid and Salamanca for their turn in the exchange.
“The goal is that students from both countries get to share their cultures, explore other ways of living, [and] have immersive cultural exchanges while living with an exchange partner and visiting different sites in the host country,” Casey said.
For many students from Spain, it was their first time in the United States. During their visit, they explored Boston, the Newport Mansions, the State House, Harvard, and MIT, and even went apple picking.
“I think the most exciting thing is experiencing how other people live—everything from their daily routine to the places they visit and participating in local customs and traditions,” Casey said.
Beyond the planned excursions, the Spanish and Lexington students had many opportunities to bond.
“We became friends and the entire group would get together. We went to a park in Arlington where we watched the sunrise and had a big picnic,” Gia Colaco, a junior at LHS who hosted a Spanish exchange student, said.
Having formed these friendships during the Spanish students’ visit, the Lexington students are looking forward to continuing the exchange when they travel to Spain in February.
“I feel like my favorite part of the program is going to be when I go to Spain, especially now since everyone from the big group of Spanish and Lexington kids knows each other,” Colaco said. “But so far, my favorite part has been getting to know everybody and hanging out. It was a lot of fun and a great experience.”
