Points of Pride: Students and Faculty Engaged in the Global Community

With the help of the Senior Leadership Team and Shannon Allen, I pull together a collection of “Points of Pride” every January with the help of the Senior Leadership Team to reflect on the calendar year just ended. Though that letter is written and shared in January, we are thinking of those sources of pride all year. 

A case in point was a spring break trip of note. Over that week,  three of our students (Maddox Wolfe ’25, Samantha Saade ’26, Charlie Cady ’27) and one of our SLT administrators (Chelsy Beninate) took a Sister Cities trip. I am reflecting on the powerful value of our engagement with Fort Worth’s uniquely robust Sister Cities program. As our Assistant Head of School for Operations and Security, Chelsy also coordinates our international studies efforts (officially, our Center for International Studies, CIS). She was one of two Delegation Leaders sworn in by Mayor Mattie Parker to represent the city of Fort Worth abroad, for the March trip to Budapest, Hungary. Maddox, Samantha and Charlie were among the 10 delegates selected from the city’s high schools to represent the students of Fort Worth.

Chelsy shared some thoughts on the trip, her fourth as a Delegation Leader. (She has previously led trips to Nagaoka, Japan; Trier, Germany; and Nîmes, France).  

[Going into this trip,] I knew very little other than my father really hoped I would learn how to perfect Hungarian Goulash. The best part of participating in these delegations is staying with a host family. Each student has a completely different experience. They live with a family as another member of their family for the week. By the end of the week, many students are tearful when they leave their new friends. They remain in contact for many years and often visit one another on their own after the exchange.

Before traveling to the destination, students meet as a group once a month before departure. At these meetings, they prepare a presentation to share with a local school. [In our case,] we learned the Cotton-Eyed Joe to teach [our hosts] a dance. We discuss cultural norms to include; key phrases; typical fashion and appropriate dress; and common phrases to say hello, thank you, good morning, good night; etc.  

Maddox shared some of his thoughts about his first trip with Sister Cities:

• It was a great way to see the world. 
• I wish I had done it sooner, so I had the opportunity to see more.
• You get an inside look at other people's way of life that you wouldn't on a typical trip.
• You get to meet people like the Co-Chairman of the Hungarian Green Party or the Head of the EU representation in Hungary.
• I learned so much about the fragile political situation of Hungary, which was very interesting for me since I hope to go into politics one day.
• My host family was so extremely hospitable, even though the only person who spoke English was my host.
• I accidentally ordered a super-spicy pizza because I didn't know that “Durva” meant super-spicy, and Hungarian translated it to "rough.” My host warned me that it was spicy, but he insisted that all Hungarian food was spicy, so I didn't believe him. 
• I think my Budapest trip is what got me accepted at Northeastern University, since I was deferred and later accepted after I told the Admission Office about it.
• My host's apartment was incredibly small. They didn't even have a dining area; they just set up a table in the mother's room. My host, Mate, lived there with his mother, brother, and two extremely hyperactive dogs.
• The public transportation was incredible, I was so jealous I could get a monthly all-pass in Pest County for just $25. I spend like $43 every week-and-a-half filling up my car with gas.
• I had never traveled to Eastern Europe or any ex-Eastern Bloc country, so it was so interesting to see how the Communist government of Hungary had affected the development of the Budapest metropolitan area.