Spanish exchange students visit Warwick ShopRite

WARWICK — On Wednesday, July 11, a group of 14 Spanish exchange students, members of a group visiting Warwick as part of a cultural exchange program, arrived at Warwick ShopRite, where they purchased items for the Warwick Valley Ecumenical Council’s Food Pantry.

The students were scheduled to tour the store on an “education day,” visiting each department and learning to navigate the aisles.

American students may not appreciate this but for a group of foreign exchange students from Spain, a tour of Warwick’s ShopRite can be an important educational experience during their four-week stay in this area.

“They do not have supermarkets as large as this back home,” said Tiffany Megna, coordinator for finding host families in Warwick for the Spanish students and their group leader.

“Where you have a selection of 50 different choices of a particular item like chips,” added Eva Hinojar, the tour’s group leader, “we may have only four or five.”

After dropping off their purchases at the food pantry, Hinojar and the students were scheduled to visit the Albert Wisner Public Library where they could read about the interesting places they planned to visit on the following day’s excursion to New York City.

Megna, an area representative for the Center for Cultural Exchange, is a certified teacher, who recalls spending a summer studying in Madrid.

“My Spanish is not that good,” she admitted, “so I tell the students that when we converse, they must speak only English and I will only speak Spanish. That way, they can correct my mistakes and they won’t feel as bad when I correct their English. We all benefit.”

The Center for Cultural Exchange is a non-profit International education exchange organization. Based in Chicago, Illinois, CCI organizes high school exchange, short-term group home stay, intern and trainee positions and language programs in over 30 countries around the world.

Megna, who works as a substitute teacher during the school year, is an area representative for the organization. Her job is to find host families for the exchange students and their chaperones and to arrange tours, fun events and educational programs during their four-week stay.

The students receive intensive training in English as a second language, art classes and an introduction to American culture including popular sports like baseball. They also enjoy recreational trips to New York City as well as local water parks and the like. Since group entrance fees are heavily discounted, many of the host families’ children have an opportunity to tag along at the reduced fee.

“It’s a win-win,” said Megna. “They all have fun and at the same time they are learning each other’s language and culture.”

For information on becoming a host family call Tiffany Megna at 988-0626 or e-mail: 5smiling@warwick.net.