In celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of George School's relationship with its Nicaraguan sister school, El Centro Educativo Nicaragüita in Managua, principal and founder Rafaela Torres Ugarte, along with three alumni of the Nicaraguan school, will visit George School from Monday, April 25 to Monday, May 2, 2005. George School has sent faculty and students on a service project to El Centro Educativo Nicaragüita every year since 1992. Eagerly anticipated by faculty and students who have gone on the service trips, next week's visit will mark the first time that a group from the Nicaraguan school has come to George School.
Described by George School religion teacher Carolyn Lyday as "a consummately professional educator with a global vision and a spiritual vision of education," Rafaela will speak briefly about the relationship between the two schools at an all-school assembly on Friday, April 29, at 9:50 a.m. in Walton Center Auditorium at George School. The three alumni, all members of a professional dance company in Managua, will perform a Nicaraguan dance.
"Having a sister school means that over the years, we have forged real familial bonds, faculty to faculty, student to student, family to family," Carolyn said. In the late 1980s, she and language teacher Mabel Houghton created the Nicaragua service project with the administrative support of Fran Bradley, then associate head of school. By now, more than one hundred George School students have lived in the homes of families and teachers of the school, and some Nicaraguan families have hosted George School students for ten or twelve years. Carolyn has co-led ten of the service projects.
"I take students down there so their vision of reality will be transformed and enlarged—so that they will feel the connection of their lives to other lives that are less privileged," she said.
El Centro Educativo Nicaragüita is a private school for pre-kindergarten through high school. Located in a poor working-class barrio, the school struggles to survive as a private school with a tuition that keeps it accessible to working-class families.
During the service trips, George School students work in the classrooms as teachers' aides. Using materials that their group has brought, they create learning materials such as mobiles and puppets for the faculty to use. They also work to maintain the school's appearance, painting walls, painting and repairing desks and tables, and working with mural artists. In addition, every year the George School students fundraise prior to the trip so that students from the Nicaraguan school can take field trips to sites such as museums and zoos. The George School students' presence as chaperones makes it possible for the field trips to take place.
All George School students are required to complete a service project by working at local human services agencies or on national or international service projects. In addition to Nicaragua, recent international service projects have taken place in Costa Rica, Cuba, France, South Africa, Vietnam, and South Korea.
"The cultural exchange is pretty profound," Carolyn said. "I think the tremendous value of having international sister school relationships is that our North American students have the opportunity not only to travel abroad as tourists, but also to immerse themselves in the language and culture and economic and social realities of [another] country."
George School junior and Langhorne resident Lauren Neal, a member of the 2005 service trip, said, "The most influential part of my trip was getting to stay with a Nicaraguan family." Seeing firsthand the poverty, as well as the "rich tradition and love" in which her host family lived, she said, was a powerful experience. "It is when one gets the opportunity to know others that the world becomes less distant and more human," she said.
George School students and faculty have long wished that a group from the Nicaraguan school could visit their campus, but financial obstacles have stood in the way. During the 2004 service trip, Carolyn said, George School students came to feel strongly that a reverse exchange should take place in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of the schools' relationship. Having fundraised in advance of their trip, they did so again when they returned to George School in order to make the trip possible for their Nicaraguan friends.
Rafaela and the alumni will spend time in various classes during their week on campus. Their visits to Spanish classes will give George School students the opportunity to converse with native speakers, and the alumni will also participate in dance classes.
The seeds of the sister-school relationship were planted in 1986 when a series of speakers at George School presented various perspectives on the economic realities of Nicaragua and the impact of U.S. foreign policy on the country. For Carolyn, Mabel, Fran, and other faculty members, learning about the situation prompted a strong personal concern for the welfare of the people of Nicaragua. They, along with other George School teachers and administrators, undertook several trips to Nicaragua in the subsequent years in order to investigate how George School could help, and they formed a connection with Rafaela that led to the sister-school relationship. "I felt a responsibility to bear witness to the real human aspect of policy," Carolyn said.
About George School
George School, founded in 1893 by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), teaches that each person shares a responsibility for helping to make the world a better place. The student body is diverse, representing twenty states and thirty foreign countries and a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, academic, and economic backgrounds. Each year more than $4 million in need-based financial aid is provided to eligible students.