English & Spanish Intercultural Exchange with Camden Rockport Elementary School

Hello, my name is Florence Berner and I am the English Coordinator at Valpo Surf Project. From 2023 to 2024, I completed a one-year internship with VSP and have recently returned back from the UK to begin coordinating and expanding our English curriculum. After several months outside of Chile, it has been incredible to come back and see the progress being made amongst our VSP students. Our programming has a clear impact on the wellbeing, motivation, and confidence of VSP students in their approach to emotions, sport, academics, and the natural world. It is really exciting for the English Program to be a part of this progress and to be able to offer classes to more VSP students who are motivated to improve their English language skills!

As part of our English programming, our students had the incredible opportunity to participate in an intercultural exchange with Camden Rockport Elementary School in the state of Maine, USA.  We were very lucky to receive the invitation from Camden Rockport Elementary School in January about the possibility of becoming penpals with Mrs. Scordino's 4th grade class, who earlier this year had read Marjorie Agosín's novel Viví en el Cerro Mariposa (I Lived on Butterfly Hill). The novel is a true story about an 11-year-old girl who navigates loss, political upheaval, and personal growth in Chile during the 1970s and 1980s, as her inner world, family life, and the once peaceful neighborhood of Butterfly Hill, are all heavily affected by the political turmoil of the military coup in Chile in 1973.

The Camden Rockport 4th graders were hoping to interact with VSP students, who have themselves grown up in neighborhoods that have and continue to face the same challenges as the protagonist in their story. In fact, when VSP started in 2010, Cerro Mariposa was the first neighborhood and group of kids we worked with. Some VSP graduates, now VSP staff, still live there. We were thrilled by the opportunity to have a cultural exchange with Camden Rockport Elementary School, not only to enrich their 4th grade book reading, but also for our students to learn about the culture of Maine and the United States. Maine is a very significant location for VSP because it is where three of the VSP founders went to college (shoutout to Bates College!) and is the location of our US office. It is also the home to many supporters of VSP, making Camden Rockport Elementary School in Maine an even more special place for our community. 

So we called upon our experienced English students from Porvenir territory to take on the mission and participate in this special opportunity and intercultural exchange! The plan was to have a series of four classes, with the objective to get to know each other and learn about each other's cultures, in preparation for the students to eventually meet each other online via a video call in the final class.

In the first class, we began by showing them a video that Mrs. Scordino's students created showing what their school is like. The Porvenir students then created their own video about Costa Brava (an area within the Porvenir neighborhood). The Porvenir students enjoyed creating a video about their neighborhood and using the expression "pretty cool!" that the Camden Rockport students used in their video. 

In the second class, we exchanged penpal letters and VSP students learned about the Camden Rockport students’ lives, families and hobbies. They responded to their penpals in Spanish and English asking questions like "how do you get to school?" and "what’s your favorite food?". The VSP students were particularly surprised that the Camden Rockport students had pets like guinea pigs, chickens and fish, and that they had common interests in food, football (soccer), and dogs!

In the third class, the VSP students watched a slideshow all about Camden Rockport Elementary School, the geography of Maine, the sea-based culture, and what sports the students play. VSP students then created their own slideshow telling the US students all about Chilean food, the beaches in Valparaíso, and the activities they participate in at VSP. At this point they were all getting very excited to meet their penpal amigos on Zoom and so we prepared some presentations and questions for the big day!

In the fourth and final class, we had our Zoom meeting where the students met each other for the first time. The students were thrilled to meet their penpal amigos and there was a lot of excitement, laughter and dancing! The students began by presenting themselves and then asking questions they were curious about like, "how are you feeling at the moment?" or "how did you get to school this morning?". The VSP students also gave a traditional Cueca performance, played a pan flute, and gave a demonstration of the different parts of a surfboard. The VSP students were surprised to see how clean and organized the Camden Rockport students' classroom was, how good their level of Spanish was, and that one boy was wearing a Manchester United football shirt (soccer jersey)! After finally exchanging a few more dance moves, some funny faces and a few jokes, the students gave a very heartfelt goodbye and signed off the Zoom call shouting all together "Nice to meet you!".

The students were very sad to say goodbye to their new friends and would like to continue getting to know Mrs. Scordino's class and learn about the culture in Maine and the USA. They were particularly interested in learning about the sport of skiing and also feel it is very important that the US students learn what a "completo" is (a chilean hotdog) and how to make one. It was fantastic to see all the students involved go out of their comfort zone, stay open minded and have a positive experience learning about a culture different to their own. We are hoping to see our penpal amigos soon and explore sending each other different recipes, cooking each others typical foods and to continue spending time together via Zoom!

Thank you Camden Rockport Elementary School and Mrs. Scordino for this opportunity and nos vemos pronto (see you soon)!