JCA's International Student Ambassadors

 

 

Published: Thursday, April 30, 2015 

JOLIET – Twenty-four international student ambassadors from Joliet Catholic Academy high school along with two chaperones, Lauren Finaldi and Ellen Herron, completed the second half of a short-term exchange with a Catholic high school in Vilanova, Spain.

This is the third year JCA has participated in the exchange program. Participants lived with families of local Vilanova high schoolers who traveled from Spain in the fall to experience the Joliet Catholic Academy tradition.

Students from JCA went to school and attended classes with their host brother/sister. Several students participated in the content of specific courses such as math, science, and English. The students also saw many famous sites.

JCA participants included juniors  Breanna Akre, Casey Corless,  Kaci Courtwright, Mia Farrell, Thomas Hilke, Lena Rodriguez,  Madelyn Tyler, Kaitlyn Williams and Matt Vonch along with seniors  Nataly Cardenas, Samantha DeBenedetti, Emily Demick, Ryan Gulden, Molly Gunning, Dalton Jones, Jacey Lambert,  Connor McNulty, Renee McTee, Alex Mihalakakos, Kaitlin Papesh, Michelle Poplawski, Madeline Seneker,  Amy Thompson and Adriana Trizna.

For more information on JCA’s International Student Ambassadors program, contact club moderator, Lauren Finaldi, at lfinaldi@jca-online.org or 815-741-0500.

This article in THE PATCH
This article in THE HERALD

Joliet Catholic Academy's Spanish Exchange 2012

JCA Spanish Exchange

JCA Short Term Exchange to Spain

SCHOOLS ›

From the community

Joliet Catholic Academy's Spanish Exchange Club enjoys trip to Spain

By Joliet Catholic Academy May 8, 2012 at 12:40 p.m.

• Print
• Share on emailEmail

Students from JCA's Spanish Exchange Club pose for a picture during their trip to Vilanova, Spain.

JOLIET – A different language. A different place. A different pace.

“People are a little different when they’re at home,” nodded Lauren Finaldi, a Spanish instructor and the moderator of National Spanish Honor Society and Student Exchange. “When you have the opportunity to see your students living and speaking in this type of environment, it gives you more of a full picture.”

From April 5-18, 14 students from Joliet Catholic Academy’s Spanish Foreign Exchange Club viewed that picture in Vilanova, Spain, a suburb of Barcelona. JCA hosted the same families from Sept. 4-15.

“That gave us a certain comfort level,” Finaldi said. “Vilanova is a half-hour drive from Barcelona – like Joliet to Chicago, the same kind of distance. The kids were impressed that, even though it was a city setting, they could walk everywhere or they could ride bikes. We did a ton of walking over there.

“It’s a very nice lifestyle. Most of the kids either walked or rode their bikes to school, picking up their friends along the way, and you can’t drive in Spain until you are 18. A lot of the kids won’t drive even when they turn 18 because it’s not really necessary. Anywhere that you have to go, you can walk.”

Traveling during the school’s Spring Break to Spain from JCA were seniors Anne Schmig (Joliet), Brittany Rosales (Joliet), Jasmine Smith (Joliet), Nick Humbles (Wilmington), Alessa Smith (Shorewood) and Marissa Cardenas (Plainfield); juniors Carolyn Hall (Plainfield), Madeline Mutz (Joliet), Taylor Madlener (Plainfield), James Hunter Warning (Shorewood) and Michael Kaminski (Joliet); sophomores Alexis Rotnicki (Shorewood) and Cesar Mireles (Joliet); and freshman Nataly Cardenas (Plainfield).

Also along as a chaperone with Finaldi (Naperville) was Katie Drabik (Joliet), who teaches Spanish at JCA. And as educators, Finaldi and Drabik were thrilled to witness the classroom coming alive in real time.

“It was so gratifying to hear the students,” Finaldi said. “There are things you teach in class – the language, obviously. But there are other things you may have told them or tried to teach them.

“Until they go there and they live it, it’s different. Then you hear them talking to each other and they’re saying something like they have discovered it for the first time, and it is amazing how it sinks in.”

For her part, Finaldi considered the trip the realization of a dream and thanked Jeffrey Budz, JCA’s Principal/CEO, for approving the trip. Finaldi went on student-exchange trips in high school and college.

“I have done this many times, so I know the value of it,” Finaldi said. “I went and we hosted students when I was in high school, I went as a college student and I spent a semester there as a grad student.

“I have always dreamed of doing this because I know how much it has shaped my life. It’s the reason I became a Spanish teacher. And for our kids, they will make friends from Spain that can last a lifetime.”

SHARE THIS STORY

• Share on emailEmail
• Print

• 
  
• 
  
  • 
    

First Visit from EPIA Spanish School to JCA

JCA Hosts Spanish Students, September 2011

SCHOOLS ›

From the community

11 exchange students from Barcelona bond with Joliet Catholic Academy's Spanish Department

By Joliet Catholic Academy Sep. 28, 2011 at 3:29 p.m.

JCA students and their exchange students from Barcelona, Spain, get together for a picture on Fiesta Friday.

Lauren Finaldi, a Spanish teacher at Joliet Catholic Academy, remembers her trip to Spain as a high school student. And the impact of that trip has remained a poignant memory for the Naperville resident.

“When I was a high school student in the 1980s, I had the wonderful opportunity of participating in a short-term exchange program to Spain,” Finaldi said. “The unique experience of traveling with your teacher and a small group of classmates to a foreign land was completely life-altering for me.”

It was that type of experience Finaldi hoped would be the end result of having JCA families host 11 exchange students and their teacher from Barcelona, Spain. They were on campus from Sept. 4-15.

After arriving on a Sunday and attending a barbeque, the Barcelona students participated in a Labor Day parade. Trips to Chicago and Brookfield Zoo were included, as well as a trip to White Fence Farm and a night of bowling. The students attended mass at St. Raymond Cathedral and held a Fiesta on Sept. 9.

“I am so happy JCA has been open to hosting this great group of students, and they have touched our lives in so many positive ways,” Finaldi said. “My trip shaped my life in a positive way, and from there on out, it has been a goal of mine to bring this wonderful experience to as many students as possible.”

Two JCA students, Naperville’s Malin Jones and Shorewood’s Julia Malinowski, could attest to Finaldi’s sentiments.

“I had a great time,” Jones said. “I really enjoyed Miquel. He was one of the best English speakers, so that made it easy on me. He learned a lot about us and I learned a lot about him. Like their schools are much, much smaller. He saw our hallways and said, ‘It’s just like in the American movies.’”

“It was definitely a cool experience, Malinowski said. “We found out that kids from Spain are the same as us. They listen to the same music and have the same problems, especially with boys. It was two weeks, but it flew by so fast, and it was a great chance to learn about another part of the world.”

Each exchange student was paired up with a JCA student and their family. They were:

 Plainfield’s Jessica DeLaVergne, her parents Jason and Tammy, with Judith Adiego Perez.

 Shorewood’s Katelyn Gannon, her parents Kelli and Shaun, with Maria Palcios Marti.

 Joliet’s Nolan Hucek, his parents Doug and Beth, with Gerard Birlanga.

 Naperville’s Malin Jones, his parents Earl and Dolores, with Miquel Alvarez.

 Plainfield’s Michelle LaViola, her parents Margaret and John, with Patricia Plan Novella.

 Shorewood’s Julia Malinowski, her parents Laura and Dan, with Paula Hidalgo Herrera.

 Joliet’s Sidney Munch, her parents Tammy and Robert, with Maria Villarubias Abiac.

 Shorewood’s Carley Serena, her parents Joseph and Heidi, with Maria Del Mar Luuch Orriols.

 Joliet’s Jasmine Smith, her parents Marc and Jennifer, with Anna Gene Orriols.

 Plainfield’s Stephanie Tillman, her parents James and Mary, with Maria Gonzalez Rodriguez.

 Shorewood’s Colleen Quinn, her parents John and Alex, with Laura Cardona Roca.

SHARE THIS STORY

• Share on emailEmail
• Print