小黄车

Top left, Moyano with students at monthly language table. Top right, DeMartino with Argentinian host family. Bottom left, Aranda with students at a cooking event. Bottom right, Roberts Toledo with UNCuyo students after photography workshop.

This year, Webster is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its exchange program with Universidad Nacional De Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. Initiated through the friendship of professors Marisu Chambouleyron and Graciela Corval谩n, the program allows one student a year from each university to teach their native language in the other. 

Since 1988, the program has been an uninterrupted exchange of language, culture, creativity and friendship. Program participants, Mar铆a Victoria Aranda, Mariana Moyano, Derek DeMartino and Austin Roberts Toledo describe the significance of the exchange for them as students, teachers and bilingual speakers.

After graduating as the top students from UNCuyo鈥檚 English Teaching Program, Aranda and Moyano came to Webster as teaching assistants. Each of them had their own unique background, but agreed that the Webster-UNCuyo exchange program is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and an opportunity to practice everything they have learned about teaching a language, as well as the culture behind it.

Organizing the Spanish language table throughout the semester was one of their responsibilities. These frequent meetings encouraged cultural exchange, informal conversation and an environment for students to practice their language skills. 

Witnessing students open up, take risks in Spanish and form connections has been incredibly fulfilling, Aranda and Moyano expressed. 

Beyond the exchange of language, the program offers even more. It started as a friendship, and it鈥檚 evident that friendship is still at the heart of the program. As Aranda shared, 鈥淚t was participating in clubs and campus activities that helped me make friends and engage with the community, also to see firsthand how 51小黄车 encourages students to explore their interests, build networks and make lasting memories.鈥�  

For Moyano, the sense of community and friendship was also priceless. 鈥淚 breathed Webster for almost a year and that was not only one of the happiest years of my life, but also a very transformative one.鈥�

On the other side of the exchange, Webster students, Roberts Toledo and DeMartino, greatly improved their Spanish language skills while immersed in the lives of their host families and the culture in Mendoza. Both experiences were enriched by learning about the history of Argentina in Spanish, with classes on the era of colonization and the history of art, respectively. They shared the experience of an expansion of their world through language and culture and gained great value in the experiences of teaching.

Webster鈥檚 strength in arts and culture has always been noted as a benefit of the program at UNCuyo. As Roberts Toledo is an alum of the Department of Art and Design at Webster, in addition to the English class, he taught a workshop and presented lectures on his photography, both in Spanish and English. At the end of the semester, the students presented an exhibition of their work in the entrance to the school. 

鈥淭he exchange has brought so many opportunities that to sum them all up would require an entire book, it鈥檚 something that will stay with me the rest of my life,鈥� Roberts Toledo said. 

Meanwhile, nearly two years after graduating from Webster, DeMartino now resides in Spain, where he works as an English teaching assistant and private tutor. 鈥淲ithout my first teaching experience in Mendoza, I never would have had the courage to make the move to Spain,鈥� he said. DeMartino鈥檚 host family welcomed him to Argentine culture by cooking homemade meals and engaging in extensive chats that strengthened his fluency and confidence in the language. Furthermore, having the opportunity to do a 5,000-kilometer road trip from snowy Patagonia up to the northern rainforests molded his understanding that unforgettable opportunities are there for those who seize them.

鈥淭his exchange program has not only expanded our skills as educators but has also allowed us to grow personally and expand our horizons. As lifelong learners, our return home inherently involves new insights, friendships and an enduring appreciation for the sense of community at both Webster and UNCuyo.鈥� 

Thirty-five years after their project began, Chambouleyron and Corval谩n can rest assured the program is still true to its roots, strengthening bonds and cultivating the love for languages and culture.