SHS Students Tour Spain During Winter Break

Over the February winter break 20 students and two teachers traveled to Spain from February 6 - 19 as part of the Spanish exchange program at Scarsdale High School. This program is intended to expose students to Spanish culture and introduce the students from Spain to American culture. The first part of the exchange took place in October, when 20 students from Spain came to Scarsdale and stayed with host families.

Students on this trip were able to emerge themselves in the Spanish culture since for most of the duration of the trip they lived with Spanish families. Scarsdale students experienced typical days in the lives of the Spanish students and attended school with them.

Along with living with the various Spanish students, Scarsdale students as a group toured the center of Madrid, visited Toledo and took an overnight trip to Seville. The students also worked on their Spanish speaking skills since most of the parents of the exchange students did not speak English.

The students who went on the trip said that touring and tasting food in Spain was incredible but what they liked the most was the relationships they created with fellow Scarsdale students on the trip.

SHS junior, Abby Ducker says, " My favorite part of the trip was touring Spain with my friends. Normally when I travel it's with my family but it was an amazing experience to travel with people from school rather than my family because I met a lot of people from different grades who I wouldn't have otherwise known. By the end of the trip we had all made so many memories and we bonded a lot and I think that this was the best part of the whole trip".

Commenting on the trip, school psychologist and former Spanish teacher Ernie Collabolletta said, "This is our fourth year with the program and we now do it on a yearly basis, not every two years like before or what the French classes do. We exchange with a school in Madrid called Colegio Ramon y Cajal. Something new we did was to go to Sevilla for two days with the AVE (super fast train) and stayed in a hotel for a night, and toured the city for two days. The kids loved it because it was so different from Madrid. The highlight of the trip was the language experience and this year, unlike last year, when four students had to go to the hospital, no one got really sick. The trip was fabulous. Although the kids were different and have unique personalities, they each came away with the experience of wanting to return."

Overall students raved about the trip, noting that mentors Susan Lasalle and Ernie Collaboletta, who accompanied the students, did a great job at making the trip fun and keeping everyone safe.