Upper School Hosts Spanish Exchange Students
October 6, 2025
Throughout September, Seven Hills hosted 20 students and two teachers from Colegio Claret Askartza in Bilbao, Spain. The Spanish students stayed with Upper Schoolers and spent two days attending their classes with them at Seven Hills.
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“Having a heritage speaking student in one’s home creates many benefits, including practicing the target language, understanding cultural nuances, and forming lifelong friendships and opportunities for exchange,” Head of Upper School Rick Tate said. Upper School teachers created special lessons for the Spanish students, in which they learned American games in Kristen Bowman’s P.E. class, practiced metric to imperial conversions while making cookies in Anna Works-McKinney’s math class, and learned about Latin American literature in Teresa Bardon’s Spanish class. |
Outside the classroom, the Spanish students took part in Homecoming Spirit Week, attended the Homecoming Dance, and practiced with the boys soccer team.
“It was a very positive experience,” said head soccer coach Mike Combs. “Our Seven Hills varsity soccer squad gave them a warm and enthusiastic welcome.”
“Taking part in exchanges improves language learning in innumerable ways. Many believe that language learning is the production of speaking fluently, but from a linguistic standpoint, language learning is a multifaceted process. Exchanges provide real-life, immersive opportunities to use the language in authentic contexts.” — Upper School Spanish teacher Teresa Bardon
Seven Hills students, including many who hosted Spanish students, will be traveling to Spain during May Term.
“More than anything, we hope that students learned that despite differences of language, culture, or nationality, we have much more in common than we thought,” Tate said.
