GUELPH – Students from Mexico said they got a real feel for Canadian life during the time they spent visiting Guelph schools this spring.
The Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) welcomed over 100 students to Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School and St. Michael, St. Paul, Mary Phelan and St. Ignatious of Loyola Catholic elementary schools.
Two groups of students visited Ontario from March 18 to 29 and April 2 to 12, on a trip organized by the Muskoka Language International Education Group (MLIEG).
The students are in Grades 6 through 11 and attend four different schools in Mexico City.
The WCDSB partnered with MLIEG to show the Mexican students what attending school in Canada is like, and to give the local students an opportunity to get to know the visitors and learn about their culture.
MLIEG chief operating officer Cheryl Lee said board officials, principals and teachers showed a “warmth, flexibility and genuine curiosity” and excitement for the students that was “precious.”
“The kids felt so included by the schools,” she said, and they were welcomed with signs and flags.
“One school had cut out Mexican and Canadian flags and made frames around poster boards down the hallways,” she said.
On April 12, their last day visiting Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School, the Mexican students shared a cultural presentation with the Canadian students. They played Mexican music including El Payaso del Rodeo, a popular party song, and also had fun with La Loteria, a traditional Mexican board game similar to bingo, and a piñata. Photo by Robin George
Bishop Macdonell principal Stephen Gulyas said school officials jumped at the chance to have the Mexican students visit, because “we like to have any opportunity to embrace and get to know other cultures.
“So we reached out to our students for volunteers to be buddies,” who each paired with a visiting student and was responsible for showing them around and bringing them to class.
“We had way more students than expected reach out and really wanted to be a part of it,” Gulyas said.
And it was the same with Bishop Mac teachers – when asked who wanted to have a student from Mexico attend their classes, “the response was overwhelming,” he said.
Student perspectives
The Advertiser spoke with four of the visiting students about their trip: 15-year-old Regina Soltero and 14-year-olds Mariano Hernandez, Max Fernandez and Tania Velez.
For Soltero, getting to know her buddy Kaylee was the highlight of her trip.
Soltero said the Canadians she met were kind and “always so open to everyone. I think it’s amazing, honestly.”
Hernandez shared this sentiment, saying everyone he met was respectful and very nice.
“I made a Chinese friend and learned a lot about his culture,” he added.
Fernandez said he was impressed by the diversity of Canadian culture and how “everyone has an open mind.”
He enjoyed listening to new music that his Canadian peers introduced to him, from all his favourite genres, especially pop and R&B.
He was also impressed by the athletic ability of Canadian students, particularly playing basketball.
Bella Chapel was one of the Bishop Macdonell students who took a turn hitting the piñata. Photo by Robin George
The Mexican students watched a Bishop Mac hockey game and participated in a range of activities, including scavenger hunts and athletic games during the trip, Gulyas said.
And they were “extremely courageous in their willingness to get involved in activities at the school.
“We were a little bit worried they might be nervous and take time to become acclimated, but they got involved right away,” he said.
Fernandez had just one complaint about the trip: the weather. “It’s too cold,” he told the Advertiser on a blustery April day.
The students spent six full school days at Bishop Mac, during which they attended four classes each day.
“We tried to give them a full experience of what high school would be like in Canada, by giving them a mix of core and optional credits, Gulyas said.
The students found Bishop Mac very different from their schools in Mexico City.
One thing that stood out to Velez is the length of the classes – at her school in Mexico they attend eight classes per day that are 50 minutes long, where as at Bishop Mac there are four classes per day that are each almost two hours long.
Fernandez said he was surprised by certain classes, including nutrition: “In Mexico I have never seen a class that teaches people how to cook or classes that help us in our daily lives.”
Soltero said classes were very different from lessons back home – more “interesting, exciting and funny.”
Hernandez agreed, saying, “I didn’t get bored in any class.”
His favourite class was geography. He said before showing up at the school he felt nervous, but after the first day he felt sure it was a safe place and he could socialize.
Nick Tarchanin is the Muskoka Language International Education Group program coordinator for the group of students visiting from Mexico. Photo by Robin George
The students stayed at Campfire Circle Rainbow Lake in Waterford, where they slept in cabins and studied survival skills, Indigenous studies and outdoor education.
During their stay in Canada, Lee said the students played soccer in the snow, saw the solar eclipse, and visited Niagara Falls, the CN Tower and the Eaton Centre.
Plans for the future
Lee said it’s the first time MLIEG has hosted a program where the students stay at a camp (rather than in homes) and she is “very hopeful we can run this again next year.
“Talk from the Mexico side is fully interested and hopefully we can do this again” too, she added.
And from Gulyas’ perspective, “It was a great experience for our students and for the students from Mexico as well. We would certainly do it again.”
Lee expressed hope the trip would encourage the students to consider coming back to Canada to study or to visit.
“I love Canada,” Soltero said. “If I could, I would make my life here.”
She spoke with the Advertiser the day before returning home, and she said she felt sad to be leaving, but was hoping to convince her parents to bring her back for a family vacation – “to see my friends again.
“I made a really strong bond with them. I don’t want to break that,” Soltero said.
They exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch.
Bishop Macdonell High School student Andre Espinel takes his turn hitting the piñata. Photo by Robin George
Velez said she also formed close bonds with her buddy Abby and the group of friends Abby introduced her to.
Velez said she signed up to visit Canada “because I knew it would be special in my life,” but added the trip exceeded her expectations.
She hopes to return to Canada to attend college.
“I leave with not a doubt that I will be very happy if I live here,” she said.
And she recommends Canadians visit Mexico too.
Hernandez too, shared hopes of returning.
“I will ask my parents if I can study here next year,” he said. “It’s a very good school.”
And while Fernandez doesn’t want to study here himself, he hopes his own children will go to school in Canada.
When asked if there’s anything else he’d like to add, Fernandez proudly exclaimed “¡Viva México!”
