From July 22th to August 11th of 2019, I was one of 27 high school students who were lucky to travel to Canada on a 3-week summer camp in Toronto, Ontario. All of the students travelling with me were students of the Peruvian-Chinese school “Juan 23”. There were also two supervisors from the school accompanying us, in addition to the constant support and guidance from the Canaway Academy team.
This cultural camp was quite an experience for me, and it helped me become more independent. At the camp, we had a Monday through Friday routine where we would attend Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario) from 9am to 4pm to attend English classes in the morning followed by cultural and interactive activities in the afternoon. We all stayed at homestays with one or two roommates and had to adapt to the lifestyles of our new family.
“Living in another country I learned that all families are different. The most important thing was to learn from them and their culture”
— Mei Simeon, Grade 11 student
It was good that our supervisors were always there for us. Certainly, managing a group of 27 students is not an easy task and it was a tough challenge for the teachers to make sure the students were doing well. On the other hand, it was a challenge for the students to travel alone and at the same time an opportunity to grow, mature and demonstrate resilience in making decisions, such as what to spend money on.
“It has been a very good experience. The students grew up as humans, and they gained the confidence to be able to interact in English more fluently.”
— Gissella Cordova, Supervisor
A positive mindset is essential to enjoy the great moments to the fullest, each student took a part of Canada in their hearts and became more empowered and independent.
The camp allowed students to experience new opportunities and gave them that added value of being exposed to multi-culturalism.
“For the future delegation, I recommend you to be aware of the money you are spending because no one is going to manage it for you. Regarding the homestays, you have to be mature enough about it and don’t act as if you were at your house, maintain everything clean and organized. Always respect above all.”
— Camila Figueroa, Grade 12 CPS student and camp participant.
The world is full of new opportunities, and if you want to discover them, you must take chances, be brave, and be ready for new adventures.
DISCLAIMER:
This post was actually written in 2020 for the Canaway Newsletter. The date of the post was changed to 2019 as the event happened that year and to make things more realistic!
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