Chilean Exchange Students

by Zoey Lee ‘27

The seven Chilean exchange students from The Grange School have come and gone in a quick month! I asked Josefina, Agustina, Fernanda, Lucia, Kyle, Raimondo, and Alex to give a bit of a review of St. Mark’s, and here’s what came out of it: A few of their favorite classes included their language classes, specifically Latin and Chinese. Kyle and Raimundo also highlighted U.S. History as an exciting course. Many of them noticed a significant difference in the amount of homework between St. Mark’s and the Grange School, as St. Mark’s assigns much more homework and has longer class periods. They mentioned that having free periods and using technology in class was surprising as well.

In terms of sports, Fernanda, Josephina, and Agustina played JV Hockey. Although they came into the experience unable to skate, they quickly learned and even played in a few games! The team was very inclusive and welcomed the three with open arms, both on and off the ice. They were also on campus for a snowstorm, which was exciting for them because it very rarely snows in Santiago, Chile, where they live. Although they were a little disappointed that the snow was not packable to make a snowman, they still had fun in the snow and took advantage of the day off.

Outside of school, they got the full U.S. experience as they went to Target, visited Harvard Square, and even stayed in New York City before arriving at St. Mark’s. Overall, they all agreed to have had an exciting, fulfilling experience in the States, surrounded by kind, welcoming people and in an amazing community. We wish the seven students and two Grange School teachers safe travels back to Chile!

- Favorite class/ place on campus/ memory you’ve made

- Most surprising/shocking thing about America or this school

- Or just differences between Chile and America/ your school and St. Mark’s

- Just overall review of St. Mark’s lol

Fernanda’s response: 

•  Mr Davey's Latin I Class

•  Early meals

•  Boarding school experience has been very different from a day school

•  great teachers, nice people and overall an amazing school

Alex: 

• Latin I

• The amount of technology they use here

• The amount of hours of school people have compared to the grange

• It's been very nice

Lucia:

- Squash courts

- ⁠The food

- ⁠The longer hours of classes

- ⁠Really nice people and teachers, this trip is a truly recommended experience

Kyle:

•  US history

•  So much homework

•  Nice people, great sport culture

Josefina:

• chinese l 

• ⁠free periods between classes 

• ⁠the amount of homework we have here vs Chile 

• ⁠st marks has been a really fun experience with a lot of kind and fun people

Raimundo:

• History

• ⁠free periods

• ⁠the amount of people in a class 

• ⁠very nice experience and people and good quality of classes