New exchange program allows students to see the world

SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty-two students, 11 from St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School in Salt Lake City, and 11 from John F. Kennedy Primary School in Guadalajara, Mexico, are taking part in a new student exchange program that involves sharing their families, their homes, their schools, and their countries with each other.

The program began when St. Vincent de Paul Principal Mark Longe met Paul Gunther, a 1985 graduate of Judge Memorial Catholic High School, whose parents, David and Elaine Gunther, built the John F. Kennedy School in Guadalajara, hoping to provide better education and bi-lingual skills to the children they met during a one-year stay in Mexico.

"My mother’s family is from Mexico," Gunther said in an interview with the Intermountain Catholic. "They saw a need for bi-lingual education for Mexican children. My mother, who attended St. Mary of the Wasatch from 1960-’61, met my dad, a graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, when he was working as a social worker for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. We moved to Mexico when I was six."

Gunther’s education became even more diverse after spending his junior and senior high school years at Judge Memorial. He got in touch with his father’s German-Irish roots by attending school in Austria. He returned to Utah to finish his degrees in international relations and political science at the University of Utah in 1990. He lived at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center in 1986. Gunther earned his Master’s Degree in education at Framingham College in Massachusetts. It prepared him to administrate the school his parents had built.

"John F. Kennedy Primary is a unique, private school that offers pre-kindergarten classes through grade six," he said. "We place a heavy emphasis on our students learning English in the early grades. By the time they reach grade six, they are fluent. The school also has a Spanish curriculum. We are preparing student, not only to excel in all subjects, but to succeed in the global marketplace."

The exchange program, in its maiden year, brought 11 sixth-graders from Guadalajara to Salt Lake City in March to attend classes at St. Vincent and live in the homes of students with whom they are partnered. In April, 11 St. Vincent students, nine sixth-graders and two seventh-graders, will travel to Mexico to live and learn along side their Mexican partners.

Although students at St. Vincent School aren’t as fluent in Spanish as their Mexican counterparts, St. Vincent Spanish teacher Ana Facelli is preparing them with the basics, said Longe, who, with Facelli, a native of Argentina, will make the trip with the students.

Gunther said his students have benefitted from the exchange, especially studying in a setting where English is spoken all day long.

"Of course, they also learn a lot about the culture, the customs, and daily life in the United States. That will further their understanding of their neighbors to the north."

Longe said he is hoping the exchange program will foster long-lasting friendships among the students. Two participating families have already visited each other, meeting half-way when the Starts family made a trip to Mazatlan."

Gunther and Longe were introduced by a mutual friend, David Leo, whose children attend St. Vincent de Paul.

The students in Mexico are no strangers to exchange program. Gunther’s father facilitated a similar program between John F. Kennedy students and Nativity Elementary School in Cincinnati.

"The exchange program offers our students great benefits," Longe said. "We tend to be so ethno-centric here. Traveling to Mexico and being immersed in the language and the culture will broaden our students’ horizons."

"At these young ages," Gunther said, "the students eat up the travel experience so later, they are interested in spending semesters abroad."

Longe, whose twin sixth-graders will travel to Mexico, said pairing the students up and having them live together, even sharing their bedrooms, "opens them up to another culture. It teaches them that the world isn’t all about us."

Gunther, who is married to a woman from Mexico, Carmen, has three children, one, an 11-year-old son, who will be old enough to participate in the exchange next year.

This month, Mexican students are enjoying Utah Jazz and Grizzlies games, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and a new bishop. In April, Utah students will experience what they don’t see in this land-locked state – the beach.