Argentinian exchange program offers cultural enrichment for American students

By Nadia Hosny '24


When Covid hit, North Cross was forced to shut down all possibilities of sending students to other places. 
Victor Lamas, Director of Lower School and Assistant Head of School for Academics, has taken the first step forward into getting us back into our exchange programs. North Cross is planning an exchange between Scuola Italiana, a trilingual school in Mendoza, Argentina. The interesting thing about Scuola Italiana is that it also has a relationship with a school in Italy, therefore making it a trilingual school. Many Argentians speak three languages, Spanish, Italian and English. There’s a lot of cultural influence from Italy in Argentina. Though the date of when North Cross students will travel to Mendoza is still being determined, currently June and Thanksgiving week of 2022 is being explored.

Students will come in late March, and stay until mid April, staying approximately 3 weeks. In this time, they will be hosted by the person, who in return, will stay at their house in Mendoza when the time comes. “The easiest thing that I want students to get out of traveling and hosting is a view of a culture and a place, that in some ways is similar to their experience, but in many ways also very different. I think it would be familiar enough to our students that they’d feel comfortable, but unfamiliar enough in an exciting way, that will hopefully spark more desire to travel, whether with the school, for college, or on their own.” said Lamas.
This isn’t the first time North Cross students have hosted and traveled to Argentina. There have been several exchanges between the two schools, the last one being in 2019, which Lamas traveled alongside students and Upper School Spanish teacher Rachelle Phillips. 

The relationship between North Cross and Scuola Italiana was sparked when Mariana Hermosilla, our very good Spanish teacher of 11 years here, teaches lower school spanish. Hermosilla was close to where she grew up in Argentina. She brought these connections to North Cross and began the process. 

Ned Tower ‘24, is ecstatic to be hosting and going to Argentina. “I’m definitely looking forward to using it as an opportunity to practice my Spanish and get into a mindset where I’d be using it all the time.” Ned’s sister, Margaret Tower, who graduated from North Cross last year went on the Argentina trip back in 2019. When asked about whether her  experience impacted his decision to go, Tower replied “She really enjoyed it, and it helped her build up her confidence with Spanish and that’s something I’m trying to improve, and so it was really helpful to hear about her experience. I mean I’m obviously a little worried about being in a place where I don’t speak the language perfectly but at the same time there’s a plus side to that, knowing I’ll be putting myself in a position to learn and improve.”

When asked about how students have compared Argentina to the U.S. in the past, Lamas hesitated before answering, saying “I guess you’d probably get a better answer from the students, but I’ve been down there too and experienced it and watched others experience it. Simple things, for example just the environment, literally the physical environment, it’s the kind of city that isn’t very American, for example, an Argentinian city in some ways is like some European cities, where there aren’t skyscrapers and office buildings so much as it is people who live in the cities, it’s quite residential. The food, in some ways, is very different, those that like meat will probably really like it because Argentinians are known for eating a lot of meat down there. The culture, students and their school experience down there is very different from what they’ve experienced here. The uniforms, social norms, interactions with teachers, it’s all different.”