After spending one week with Natalie Lijoi’s family, Daniela Blanco learned that, beneath all the differences, there are a lot of similarities between Colombian and American families.
“Here they have different schedules,” said the 12-year-old on her last day at St. Nicholas School, which has been hosting 23 students from St. George’s School in Bogota, Colombia.
“And we don’t eat so early,” she added.
But she also found that kids do the same things. Both she and Natalie practice gymnastics and have Beyoncé and Shakira on their iPods.
Two years ago, a handful of St. Nicholas students took an 11-day trip to the South American country, but this is the first time school families have hosted students from Colombia.
And there were plenty of families wanting to host, said St. Nicholas Spanish teacher Maria Gonzalez, whose father is from Colombia.
“The benefits [of the exchange] are very profound,” she said. “Not only does it teach them about differences and similarities with other countries but also enhances their love of Spanish and [their desire] to learn more.”
During their week in Chattanooga, Colombian students attended classes at St. Nicholas, gave a presentation about their home country and visited the city’s attractions.
Rhonda Lijoi, who hosted Daniela, said it’s been a great opportunity for her daughter, Natalie.
“She’s an only child and she wanted to have someone to hang out with, and Daniela has been wonderfully sweet,” she said.
Lijoi took Daniela to the Tennessee Aquarium – which she said is her favorite place – and will be sure to take her to Rock City and a corn maze.
Natalie insists that Daniela can’t leave without seeing the Creative Discovery Museum.
Gina Francesconi, an English teacher at St. George’s and one of three chaperones in the student exchange, said the program is an opportunity for the Colombian students to grow in several ways.
“You grow as a person, especially them being away from their parents and their home for the first time; they learn to be more independent and to share more,” she said.
And as a teacher, she said she had the chance to see and learn from other education systems.
“I had a mom say to me the other day, ‘I think if every child could go live in another country or host someone from another country, we would have no more wars, there would be peace on earth,’ and I said that’s a perfect slogan for the program,” said Gonzalez.
“You really learn that we may be different, we may have different schedules, wear different clothes, but we are also very similar and have so much more in common and I think they learn that as a life lesson,” she said.