Madrid Exchange

Project Location/Destination: Out of town - Madrid, Spain

Faculty Leaders: Milena Sjekloca & Xavier Espejo Vadillo

Hosting dates: Monday November 28 - Monday December 12

Traveling Dates: First two weeks of June 2023 (tentatively Friday June 2 - Thursday June 15)

Please note that registration for this Global Exchange Program includes an additional application process. See details below.

Cost: $2700

Special Considerations:

• See below.

Note this exchange to Spain is NOT during PWeek

Objective

In order to provide additional opportunities to our Spanish language learners, Latin’s Global Exchange program has a partnership with the Instituto de Educación Secundaria Ramiro de Maeztu in Madrid. This linguistic exchange opportunity offers students currently enrolled in Spanish language classes at Latin the chance to:

• Improve Spanish conversation skills

• Learn every-day terms and expressions (colloquialisms)

• Share their culture with others and increase their understanding of Spanish culture

• Build friendships to last a lifetime

Description

Besides a linguistic immersion with their host families, students will get to experience the majesty of Madrid.

They will marvel at lavish palaces, ponder El Prado Museum’s evocative art of the greats like Velazquez, Goya, and Bosch. Students will delve deep into Picasso’s Guernica at the Centro Reina Sofia and take in the cost of Spain’s civil war at the Valley of the Fallen. In addition, a day trip to Cordoba will take them back to the days of the Spanish Muslim Umayyad dynasty. A visual feast will await them at the Cordoba Mezquita where students will learn about Islamic architecture and mosque design while standing in a forest of 514 columns supported by a unique series of double-tiered horseshoe-shaped arches. Another day trip to Toledo, a vital center of culture and art, will afford students the opportunity to admire El Greco’s masterpieces at Santa Cruz Museum and the chapel of Santo Tome while enjoying Toledo’s famous mazapán.

Participants in the Madrid Exchange will host a student from IES Ramiro de Maeztu who will be visiting Chicago November 28th through December 12, 2022. In turn, the students from Latin selected to participate in this Exchange will be going to Spain departing right after final exams the first two weeks of June.

Students and families interested in this exchange need to fill in the Student Application by Wednesday November 9th. Cost for the 2-week visit to Spain will be approximately $2700. For financial aid questions, contact Jovita Monarrez at jmonarrez@latinschool.org; you can also contact her by phone 312-582-6068 or stop by her office (US211).

PLEASE NOTE: The selection process for exchanges is not random but based on the application and specific criteria used to match the applicants with their prospective host families.

***Students interested in this Exchange must fill out a short supplemental application for the special selection process:

APPLICATION HERE****

About the Faculty

Latin faculty Milena Sjekloca and Xavier Espejo Vadillo, both of whom are foreign-born, multilingual, and have vast travel experience, will be accompanying the Madrid Exchange students.

Milena Sjekloca has extensive global exchange experience. She was an exchange student in Vittoria, Italy and she came to the United States as an exchange student in Salt Lake City, UT. At Latin, Ms. Sjekloca has traveled with the Berlin and Madrid exchanges, and hosted faculty from Germany twice. She also created and led a neighborhood tour of Bronzeville for the Berlin, Madrid, and Cape Town exchanges. Ms. Sjekloca is in her eighth year at Latin and currently teaches Global Studies, Global Art and Culture, and International Human Rights Law.

Xavier Espejo-Vadillo has organized international and academic exchange trips to Spain, France, Switzerland, Malta and Uruguay in the past. In 2018, Profe Espejo took students to a PWeek in Uruguay and the Global Exchange to France. In 2019, he started the Madrid Exchange taking students to Madrid, Segovia, Cordoba, and Toledo, Spain. Last year, he co-lead a PWeek trip to New Mexico to learn about the first nations, pueblos and the impact they had due to the colonizers from Spain. As a Spanish teacher, his goal is to offer a different Spanish-speaking destination every year during PWeek and help coordinate the Madrid Exchange to offer students to experience culture, tradition, gastronomy, the arts, and practice his native language, Spanish.

Special Considerations

• Accommodation considerations - Students will be expected to sleep in shared accommodations.

• COVID related information - Some venues may require proof of COVID vaccination or negative test. Students are encouraged to travel with this information and provide it, if required. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.

• Equipment requirements - Students will be responsible for bringing and carrying their own backpack, large enough to hold their own rain gear, water bottles, additional attire for layering, depending on the weather.

• Expectation for physical activity - This project will require a significant amount of physical exertion and possibly some physical discomfort. Students on this project should be willing to deal with discomfort, at times, in inclement weather. Students are expected to be able to participate fully in all these daily activities.

• Food limitations and allergies - Students with food allergies and food sensitivities should understand that there may be times that food options will be limited. In addition, there may be cross contamination risk of allergens, as there will be times where outside food vendors will prepare our meals. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.

• Horse Riding - Students will interact with and ride a horse one day. They need to be prepared to wear the right attire and follow the instructions from the professionals conducting the activity.

• Passport Requirement - Students must have a valid passport that expires more than six months upon return.

• Scheduling (Out-of-Town) - This project will have time commitment outside of the M-F (8-4) typical school week. Please note that there is an expectation that students are able to attend the whole time the project is running.

• Sensitive Topics - Students will be exposed to sensitive topics.

• Supervision during the day - Students might be unsupervised for short periods of time during the course of the day.

• Supervision while sleeping - Students might be unsupervised for extended periods of time during sleeping hours (hotel, hostels, etc.).

• Transportation considerations - Students will take public transportation with faculty.

Global Exchange Vision and Programs

Global Exchanges and Partnerships are part of a broader global education program at Latin designed to prepare our students to become aware, empathetic, competent citizens of the world. Specifically the program aims to help students:

• Understand what is going on globally and discern the interconnectedness of cultures

• Respect people of different cultures, embrace difference, and show empathy that reaches beyond national boundaries

• Engage with people from various parts of the world, tackle real-world global problems, and show increasing competence in their ability to communicate in more than one language

These goals are in line with the School’s Mission and the values of excellence, community and integrity outlined in our Teaching and Learning document as well as the goals of our DEI work and NAIS principles of good practice regarding Education for Global Citizenship.