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Certificate of International Studies at Nativity School |
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A Wider View of the World Many of the international programs that I have taken part in over the past three years have changed my outlook on the world. From International Projects Week, to the 6th grade International Day, to Darfur Week, to the map tests, I will never think of the world the same way. When I first started taking the map tests in 3rd grade, I didn’t think they would get as complicated as they have. I thought, “Oh, this is no big deal.” But back then I didn’t really know how many countries and interesting places there were in the world. Even though sometimes it can be difficult to try to remember all those rivers and straits, I know that it will help me someday, be it in high school, college, or even after that. For now, though, it has helped me realize how large and diverse the world is. When I signed up for Spanish class at the end of 6th grade, I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it was going to be a lot of extra work, and I wanted to sign up for book club. My mom pushed me to take the class, and I am really glad I stuck with it. I knew a few words because some of my siblings had taken Spanish, but I didn’t really know how quickly I would catch on to a whole new language. During my first year, we learned a lot about Spanish culture because our teacher was from Puerto Rico. We learned a lot of vocabulary that helped us get off to a great start this year, in 8th grade. This year, we learned how to conjugate verbs, to say what we and other people are like, and even more vocabulary. Because of these two years of Spanish at Nativity, I am taking Spanish in high school, and I would love to travel to Spain, or any other Spanish speaking country some day. In 7th grade, I hosted a girl a few years younger then me from Finland. My first impression was that it wasn’t going to be a pleasant two weeks. She barely spoke any English and she was already homesick when we picked her up from the airport. After a few days of tears and silence, we started communicating a little better. Her friend who knew English a little better helped me by translating for her. By the middle of the second week, you would have thought we were best friends. Even though we couldn’t talk about anything, we still had fun just laughing and playing games. I remember trying to help her figure out what to say at the closing assembly. We were sitting on the landing at the top of my stairs, and I said, “How about, ‘thank you, I had a good time.’” She had no I idea what I said, and we laughed for at least 5 minutes. I guess it’s easier for boys to communicate because almost all boys love going outside and throwing a football or playing video games, but for girls it’s a little harder. Even though there wasn’t really a particular thing we had in common, we found our own way to have fun and communicate, and I wouldn’t have traded her for any other exchange student. In 6th grade, our class was broken into groups and we were assigned a country to study within our groups. After we studied that country and its culture, we had to put on a small culture show. My group had chosen the Netherlands. I didn’t know anything about the Netherlands, but after some research, we learned about daily life, currency, and the history of the country. What I didn’t know was that in two years I would become great friends with many people from the Netherlands. I didn’t know that I would have a great opportunity to learn about four countries, meet people from all around the world, and build life long relationships with these people. The Friendship Project was one of the best experiences in my life so far. I was excited when I heard that Nativity was actually hosting it, but I never thought it would turn out to be so amazing. I made many friends and learned so many things about kids in other countries and about their countries. Working to build a wooden dove really brought us even closer. Even though we didn’t speak the same languages, we still managed to communicate. I learned that even though we may be from different cultures, religions, and lifestyles, we still had things in common. We wanted to make friends, have fun, and build relationships that would last a lifetime. And that is exactly what we did. I email with a few of my friends that I met during that week, and even write back and forth with one of them. Now that I know that it is easy to make friends with people that you can’t easily communicate with, it is even easier to make friends with people who speak the same language as you. If you can get along with people you never thought you would meet, why not be friends with someone you see everyday, or pass in the hallway a few times a week? I plan to visit these friends someday, because I know my life has been changed because of that week. Writing this essay has really made me think back to my years at Nativity. I hope that I will be able to study and travel abroad, but I would not be as interested in places and people across the world if it were not for my experiences here. Now I know that no matter what ethnicity you are, or where you are from, there are certain things that all human beings have in common. If people from all countries could get to know each other on a more personal level, the world would be a better place and maybe peace would not be so hard to find. It's A Small World After All During my years at Nativity I have learned many things, and one of the most important things I have learned is that it is a small world after all. I have learned this in many ways. One is by meeting numerous people from far away places and learning that they are very similar to me. I have also learned this by learning that I can make a difference in a place far away. I have learned also though, that in this “small world” there are still a whole bunch of countries, capitals, rivers, mountains, and seas to learn for both the map test, . . . and of course for life.
During my last two years at Nativity I have studied the language of Spanish. During 7th grade I learned a lot of language but I also learned a lot about culture from my Puerto Rican teacher, Senora Sierra. She taught us vocabulary but we also made crafts and foods from different Spanish speaking countries. During my 2nd year studying Spanish I have gained a foundational knowledge of the Spanish language from Senora Renner that has given me the ability to test directly into Spanish 2 at Ursuline Academy next year. It is a jump start that will open other opportunities for me. I have learned so much and it has taught me that I can learn a different language. I think that it is not fair that people from other countries all learn English and I think we should have to learn other languages also. I am appreciative of Nativity giving me the opportunity to learn another language especially with how important knowing another language is becoming because of the increasingly worldly business world. Through the map studies program I have learned a lot of geography. Geography is a good thing to know because also in the increasingly worldly world I will know the location of countries other people won’t. For example if someone says Cambodia, I know more than just that it is in Asia but also I can picture its location in my head and its neighbors. I have also learned study skills and while they are not internationally related, they are helpful and a good skill I have learned at Nativity from my experience with map studies. During the 6th grade international day I learned a lot about the culture of a lot of different countries. I learned facts, about food, and cultural dances and games. During this day I learned a lot about the differences in the people of different parts of the world, and how great those differences are and how they make different groups of people unique. But even as I was learning about all these differences, and the differences are important, I knew that they weren’t the most important things. We aren’t defined by the food we eat or the number of people in our country or the games we play. We are defined by the fact that we are all members of humankind and here to live and work together on this earth. During my multiple experiences with Nativity student exchanges I learned many things. When I went to Finland in the 6th grade I learned about Finland and how similar Finnish people are. I learned that 11 year old girls like to talk on the phone and 11 year old boys like to play sports no matter where you live. In Eurocamp, I saw kids from all over the world come together in Germany and make friends. There I also did realize that when people do not share a common language there is a barrier to understanding each other. Through hosting exchange students I made amazing friends. I remember running around my house laughing with Mai Yin, my exchange student from Malaysia as if I had been friends with her forever. And one afternoon I remember joking around with Tiia, from Finland, along with Jenna Bange and her Finnish exchange student and we were laughing so hard, also as if we too had been friends forever and it had only been a week and a half. During Darfur Week I learned a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. Some of the bad things I learned are that there is genocide going on today in the world and that over 400,000 people are dead because of it. Some of the good things I learned were that I can make a difference and I learned a lot about working together. I learned that I can make I difference because during that week I did make a difference. I helped and when you put a group of people together they can do something to end something that is wrong. I learned about working together because all the people working on the Darfur project did something important and without them Darfur Week wouldn’t have been the same. Writing this essay has shown me how much I have experienced during my years spent at Nativity. This essay has helped me summarize, remember and reflect on all of the things I have learned through international education. All of this has made me a different and better person. I know that I will go through my life knowing that there are really good people from every corner of the world and that the words of the song are really true. It really is “A Small World!” An Unexpected Outcome When I first heard about the Certificate of International Studies, I wanted to earn it because it was one more award I could receive at graduation. Now that I have finished all the requirements I am glad I’ve done it, but for a different reason than when I started. Once I started doing the requirements, I started to learn things I hadn’t known before. The past two years at Nativity, I have taken Latin as a foreign language. Not only have I learned to speak another language, but I have also learned about another culture. I have also taken all the map tests and the world map test. This alone has helped me to understand current events and history better than I could before. In 6th grade, I participated in International Day. The country I researched was the Netherlands. I learned a lot about the history of the Netherlands and what it is like to live there today. I learned about a lot of other countries and cultures also. Last year I was able to go on an exchange to Germany. Between going to Germany and hosting my exchange student I learned a lot of things about Germany. While I was in Germany, I visited many historical towns, sights, and buildings. While seeing these and learning about there history was interesting, I think the thing that will stick with me the longest is the friendships I made while I was there. Although many of the people I met didn’t know much English, we still found ways to communicate and get to know each other. While I was in Germany and while my exchange student was here, I learned that despite the fact that we live in different countries and speak different languages, we are still more alike than we are different. I saw the same thing during the friendship project. I hosted an exchange student from the Netherlands. Between just spending time with her and with groups of people from different countries, I found that there are no barriers holding back friendship. Even language cannot stop friendships from forming, if you speak a different language from someone else, you can still connect with them through the things you like, such as music, movies, clothes, or any other thing you have in common. This year I was involved in a service project to help raise awareness about Darfur. We organized a week to raise awareness for Darfur. We learned that we must not only be sympathetic towards others, but that we need to suffer with them. We had own refugee camp where we slept on the cafeteria floor. Even though our camp was nowhere near as bad as real refugee camps are, it helped me to realize how refugees in Darfur live every day. We also wrote letters to Senator Sherrod Brown telling him what we have been doing to help and that we think the government should play a more active role in helping in Darfur. After reading some of the letters other students had written and seeing how everyone wanted to help during the week, I realized that even though there are bad things going on in the world, there are still always people that want to stand up for what is good. The last thing I have done for the Certificate of International Studies is write this essay. This is probably the most important thing I have done out of the requirements because I had to look back at the things I’ve experienced and how they have effected me. If I hadn’t gone on an exchange or participated in friendship week, I wouldn’t know how much alike people are from different countries. If I hadn’t helped with the week for Darfur, I never would have found out how much people can care for other people that they have never even met. If I hadn’t have been challenged to earn the Certificate of International Studies, I would have definitely missed out on the opportunity to become the person I am today.
Around the World in 8o Days My years at Nativity have gone by so fast that it’s hard to remember everything. I can barely remember my younger years, mainly fifth grade and down to be honest, but I’ll give you what I can. I’ve had good times and hard times at Nativity, but overall I have had fun here. I have learned many things. Here are a few things that have occurred while I was at Nativity.
I have been studying maps since the fourth grade. The map tests were helpful in the fact of knowing where places are in the world. If something has happened in a country, I can say “Hey, I’ve heard of that place. It’s right there!” I can point out where foreign exchange students are coming from and where our students are going. Knowing where the countries are located and how many there are, big and small, has shown me how big the world really is. Trying to memorize where all the countries, rivers, cities, mountains, and capitals are, is not easy. But each year it has gotten better. I may never have left the United States, but it seems like I’ve been around the world. I have been studying Spanish for two years now. In the seventh grade, my first year of Spanish, I learned about culture more than language, but it was fun. We cooked and brought in exotic foods that I never even thought would exist they looked so weird. We also made shawls and worked on many other projects. This year in eighth grade, I have now learned more language than culture. I can now carry on a conversation with others. We have performed many skits in Spanish to each other and to the Kindergarteners, the first graders, and second graders. It was fun performing these skits. We made these skits into films and displayed them at the open house. We learned a few prayers like the Our Father, Hail Mary, and the Glory Be. The foreign language is going to be helpful later on in my life, especially for when I get a job. If there is a Spanish speaking person and no one knows what he/she is saying, I can jump in and help out. This might give me the raise I’m looking for or a better job! I am going to continue studying Spanish in high school. The sixth grade International Day was very fun. I had Israel as my country to study about. It was fun researching and learning about what their traditions are and what they like to do. Along with the rest of my group, I enjoyed planning out what we were going to perform for everyone. I dressed as an Israeli boy. Our group taught others how to play the Dreidel game and sing the Dreidel song. I learned a few Hebrew words like “Shalom” which is “Hello”. We brought in Israeli foods and tried them. It wasn’t something I’d prefer or recommend. I also got to learn about a lot of different countries such as Germany, China and Japan from the other sixth graders. I got to try all kinds of food from each country and learn about their culture and traditions. Now from this experience it definitely seems like I have been around the world, without ever leaving the cafeteria! The student exchange program is a great idea to get kids from different countries together to have fun and learn about each other. I now know that they are just like me. We all have different customs and traditions, but we can all get along. I never thought about meeting people from outside of the country until I came to Nativity. Nativity has given me the chance to meet people and make friends from around the world. I hosted a student from the Netherlands named Stefan Geraets during Friendship Week. He told us to call him Steve. He was very funny and talented. He was fun to hang around with. We showed him around Cincinnati and got together with all the other students from the different countries. I would definitely recommend hosting a person or traveling to a different country. I made good friends during Friendship Week. I am very glad that I participated in Friendship Week. Hosting and traveling is fun and I’m glad I didn’t miss out on this opportunity. The last thing I would like to tell you about is Nativity’s interest in the world and what is going on in the world. I participated in a peace project for a place in Sudan, Africa called Darfur. We called it “Four Days For Darfur”. The people of Darfur are suffering from hunger, thirst, and disease. The “Janjaweed” have invaded Darfur and murdered, raped, and tortured the Darfurians. I participated in a protest to help make people aware of Darfur. We shouted “You cannot hide from genocide! And 1,2,3,4 stop the war in Darfur! We chanted these while walking up and down Ridge Road and Woodford Avenue. We also wrote letters to Sherrod Brown, the Senator of Ohio, to do something to help and or save Darfur. We slept over at Nativity in the cafeteria on the cold tile floor. All we could bring were sandals, a sheet, and sleeping bag. For dinner we had a limited amount of food. The piece of chicken was about the size of a walnut, the rice, we didn’t even get a handful of that, and we got a piece of bread about as big as the chicken. In the morning we had breakfast at seven o’clock. We had a piece of bread with butter on it and we also had tea. We couldn’t brush our teeth or wash up. The idea of this was to show us what it is like to be a Darfurian, although we know it’s much worse in Darfur. We at Nativity don’t think its good enough to just feel sorry for people, we think you need suffer with those who are actually suffering. In conclusion, I have had many opportunities at Nativity to have fun and take advantage of the educational opportunities. I would highly recommend that students at Nativity take advantage of these opportunities. Don’t miss out! I am going to take my knowledge to the next level and learn even more. I would like to take this moment to thank the past and present Nativity staff for my great years at Nativity. Thank you all, I have had a great time at Nativity! A Better Understanding In my total of seven years at Nativity School, I have learned more about locations, capitals, and cultures of other countries, without even thinking about it. I know a lot about ancient cultures and how they affect the nations they are today. From hosting a student during International Projects Week (IPW), I now know that even the modern culture is different in other countries. With two years of Latin, I now have an excellent base of one of the toughest languages. Sixth Grade International Day was the best project I ever had to complete. Out of all of these, the service project, 4 Days for Darfur gave me the best feeling. All together, I know a lot more than most people would think. When I studied Latin for two years with Mr. Ahrens I could feel the effects of it in my English. The homework was very minimal; but also very tough. Mr. Ahrens didn’t ask much of us other than our best effort. The best part of all was the Roman History movies on Fridays. We saw real life moments in history with fictional characters and historical characters as well. The Latin language may seem tough but you’ve got to stick it out because you will feel its effects eventually. Latin always seems like a useless and dead language but I was taught otherwise. The Map Studies Program is what makes our students international geniuses. Here, you will know more about locations of physical and political parts of the world than, probably, the people who live there. If you study for each map test every year, it will eventually get stuck in your head. You will be prepared for the infamous Map Test of the World. With this test, all of your memory of World knowledge will be shown. With all of the studying you should have been doing, a little refreshment of what you know, and a snack, you will do excellently on the test. I am telling you now; you will know a lot more than your freshman class in High School, wherever you’re going. Sixth Grade International Day was, as I said before, the best project ever. All you need is: four people, a country, and a rubric of how to do the project. You get to spend the whole day doing school-required fun. You get to cook international dishes, show a cultural game/song/narrative, spend time with your friends, and eat. It still counts as a grade (that’s why I said school required), but I don’t know why it is. It’s simply too much fun to count as a grade. With this you get to know about cultures, either before or after you get to meet a person from at least one of those countries. When I hosted Alek Niemiro for International Projects Week, I thought I’d never meet a better friend. Never being friends with a person from abroad, it was like a slap in the face hearing how good his English was. All of my stereotypes about Germany were slammed in the first day. I knew that they were all lies just from talking to him. I even disproved some of his stereotypes about America. After all of the stereotypes, were gone we became best friends. I was very distraught to see him go; but I knew we would still talk for many years to come, we might even see each other again. Even before that,I had also traveled abroad. I had gone to Eurocamp, which is located near a small town in Central Germany. There were many activities that they provided for you. They included games, trips, and a treasure hunt. They also had leisure time, which actually was the best part. They always had extra things to do. I still had much more to learn after this, but I knew enough for the time being. When I learned about the terrorizing of innocent people in a region called Darfur in Sudan, I was simply stunned. Just seeing the statistics left me wordless, but seeing the pictures of the people left me puzzled. “How come I didn’t hear about this earlier?” I thought. If it wasn’t for Mr. Yost, none of us might’ve ever known or cared about it. But we did know, and we did care; now we had to do something about it. With the help of some of the Junior High students including myself, we planned a Darfur Relief Program called Four Days for Darfur. In one selected school week in March we, the Eighth Grade, slept on the floor to show compassion to those people. We then we began to send awareness to the people of the neighborhood by protesting the slaughter. We also had a Walk-a-Thon as a fundraiser to Darfur. We had raised over 3,000 dollars, mostly contributed through a coin war in all of the grades. We just helped, maybe, the people in all of the refugee camps. In writing this essay, I have told you how we’ve gained all of our world knowledge. There is still much more I don’t know about this planet and beyond. You can learn a language, or other nations’ cultures, but you still won’t know everything. I could tell you every single thing I knew in this paper and you still wouldn’t know enough. We can’t know everything about our planet but we can sure as heck try.
Through the international studies of the past few years I changed my outlook on life. Through the map tests I learned the geographical aspects of our world. Through the 6th Grade International Day I learned the cultures of our world. In taking Latin the root of almost all western languages I learned how we communicate. In the peace project I was able to communicate with people on a much deeper and more profound level. In the student exchange experience I met others from the world in person. Finally, in writing this essay I gathered all the things I learned and made sense of it, kind of like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. This information and experience will undoubtedly help me on my way to becoming a man for others, a man who shows kindness and respect, a man without racial, ethnic, or cultural prejudices, such as the thought that all Germans are evil because of Hitler’s Holocaust. In learning the geographic locations of other countries I was able to see into our minds. I was able to see that though we put each other down and elevate ourselves we are all one. Though lines divide us, the lines are nonexistent and immaterial. We may try to give them meaning but we cannot, and should not, deny the truth that we are interrelated and interconnected. Through knowing geography I know the things which affect peoples lives, an example being, I know that the Finish have cold, freezing climates which gives them a lot of problems. The 6th Grade International Day showed me that while we are united in a basic way, we are different in others. We practice different customs. We praise different gods. While I may praise one God, a Hindu might praise many gods. Though these differences individualize us, they should not take on any greater importance. We eat different foods. These differences strengthen us and teach us to be our own selves. In learning Latin, I learned the ways in which we communicate with one another. Latin is the source of most of the languages of the western world because of the influence of the Romans. In learning someone’s language we learn to understand who he or she is and what they’re about. We learn what they believe in and why they think that way, for example, rhyming in poetry in Latin is not seen as a skill because almost any word can have the same ending as another because there are only so many endings in Latin; however, in America people are paid millions of dollars for doing this. Other languages also help when we want to communicate with them and to share with them. The peace project that I undertook with my fellow students was to raise money and awareness for the people suffering in Darfur. The first thing was planning, and coming up with ways to do this. In this venture our teacher, Mr. Yost, especially aided us. After a month of hanging up posters to raise awareness week set into motion the Four Days For Darfur. It started off with the junior high enduring refugee camp conditions for a night and a morning, through this we learned a small part of what these people were going through. Then we held an assembly to explain what we would do the rest of the week. On the next day we held a protest outside our school. The third day was the day that I had helped to plan, the Walk-A-Thon. I led the walk with Mr. Yost and three others. After the first lap we decided that to feel more like fleeing Darfurians, we should take off our socks and shoes. The entire 8th grade and much of the 7th grade followed our example. The final day of the week was that of universal solidarity in which we felt empathy for those who lost their lives and were still in danger. This ability, to feel empathy, is what the world needs to learn to become a great place to be. The student exchange project served as an anchor or something to check what I’d already learned, to verify it. In the project I was able to communicate with others from around the world, I had an interesting time when I was playing soccer on the Russian team and it was next to impossible to understand anything they were saying. I was able to see how alike we are through the sports we played. I was also able to see how different we are through the foods we ate and the languages we spoke. Finally, I was able to have a one on one experience with another human being from another country that will affect my life forever. The last aspect of my international studies through the requirements of the award is the writing of this essay. In writing this essay I notice how integral the things I have learned have become in my everyday life. When I hear about the attacks of Hitler on the Netherlands, in history, I not only think of the geographic battles but of my exchange student from there, Marco. When I hear about Russia I think of those from Russia that I met through the project. When I am learning Latin I can sometimes make connections to some of the words I learned in Hungarian, German, and even Russian. This essay has been my way of getting the bigger picture, of which I’d only already faintly grasped. If nothing else, this essay and these projects have showed me the path to becoming a man for others and how I’m already walking it to some degree.
Rarely through out a normal day does a child think about what’s going on anywhere else in the world other than right in front of his/her nose. This might even stand true for most adults as well. This was the case for me for the most of my younger years. However this changed for me through out my years at Nativity. Eventually I started taking the map tests. Not only did I learn where on the map these foreign countries were and their capitols, but through that I got curious to learn more about these countries. I wanted to learn about the people, the culture, the climate, and just about anything there was to know about these distant lands.
I eventually started to get into in depth studies of foreign people, culture, climate, etc… One of these in depth studies included the 6th Grade International Day. The 6th Grade International Day was a project that allowed students to go into deep studies of a certain country. After researching a certain country and learning all that is possible about this country, we had a day to present what we had learned. So not only did we learn about the certain country we were assigned to research, but we also learned about the countries other kids were assigned, giving us an even wider knowledge of the world. After that, when I thought I had learned just about all there was to learn about the world, I found out I was highly mistaken. In seventh grade I began to study a foreign language. I choose to study Latin and even though Latin is not the national language of any one country, it is a great tool to learn about parts of this world. Through studying Latin I have learned more about Rome and Ancient Greece than I knew existed. Latin didn’t just stop there, it has taught me so much more throughout my two years of studying it. It was great to read and learn about all this, but it still didn’t feel like it was enough. No matter what books I read and no matter what maps I looked at, I still didn’t have a first hand experience with the world outside of the U.S. I wanted to experience the world not only out of books and maps, but first hand. That is how I got involved in the exchange program. I recently hosted a Russian student this year. At first I was a little sour about the whole situation, but that was all changed through out the week with my student. At the beginning of the week I knew very little about Russia, but when the week with my exchange student was over, I felt as though I had been to Russia or read a book about there history. I came away from that experience having learned so much. I had never really thought about how much I have actually learned about the world before I sat down to write this essay. Thinking about writing this essay, I thought it was going to be hard, but I now realize that I have learned an immense amount and experienced so much through my studies of the world that writing this essay was not difficult at all. I feel as though I have come away from my experiences with foreign studies as a new person. I have learned so much that I have changed the way I think about the world and I am proud of it.
Citizen of the World I am writing this essay as the final step to complete the work for the Certificate of International Studies. It has taken me a total of three years to work towards attaining this certificate The Darfur project, our service peace project, made me aware of genocide. The word genocide means a mass killing of a group people. This is the first genocide in this generation with 250,000 people have been killed so far. 1.2 million people have been displaced and 1.4 million are living in refugee camps This activity made aware that people in our world are out there dying. I might have thought, "Oh well, that is over there far faraway, what does it have to do with me?" It made me aware of how little they are eating. In our own refugee camp we had a tiny piece of chicken and a little piece of cornbread with a spoon full of rice that was all. We did not use a spoon; we had to use our fingers. When I woke up the next morning, I was starving and could have eaten twelve pieces of butter bread. We did this in a protected environment. But they can be killed anywhere. Their protection is under a tent, which is basically under a torn shirt. They are killed by mercenaries. They are not being used as a work force. They are being used as target practice. The beginning of preparing for this certificate was the sixth grade International Day. For this a group of students and I studied the country of England. Then we performed for our parents and the sixth grade class to demonstrate what we had learned. I played the character of Paul McCartney, of The Beatles, because the Beatles were British. Additionally, we performed a traditional British dance that used the tapping of sticks. This helped me understand that every culture can be very different and that we may think something seems weird but is actually normal in another culture. My study of foreign language spanned two years. I studied Spanish with two different teachers. The first year we mostly learned about the Spanish culture because our teacher was from Puerto Rico. This year, my eighth grade year, we learned the language. Our teacher has also prepared us for high school. The study of a foreign language was the beginning of learning about a culture. The whole reason I choose to study Spanish is so I can communicate with the rest of the U.S. because all of the Spanish diversity in the U.S. The map studies program showed me that every point in the world is there for a reason. For example, the area of Iraq, which we are at war with, is very crucial to the United States because of the oil we get from the Middle East. Also, the area of Jerusalem is where Catholics believe to be the most Holy Land. These countries are important along with China, which is located along the Pacific Ocean. China has desserts, forests and mountainous areas which make it virtually uninhabitable, but never the less, has about one fifth of the world's population. The map studies program is the study of geography. In this study we learned about locations as well as land masses. This has helped me because the study of the world shows me were things are and why they have become the countries they are. Traveling abroad was the most fun! My trip took me to Kokkola, Finland where I stayed with a host family and attended school. This was a Nativity exchange trip. No parents could go on this trip unless they were teachers. It was my first trip out of the country without of my parents and Finland is half way around the world! The town of Kokkola was much smaller than Cincinnati. The population could fill Paul Brown Stadium. The tallest building there was about 8 stories tall, whereas our tallest building is 49 stories tall. Finland is flat like Kansas the tallest building was about 8 stories tall. There is lots of mass transit in Helsinki, and the homes were built ranch style with a ladder on top to use in case of a snow storm, so they could get on the roof and wait for help. The Dad and the little girl did not speak English. I was a guest in the home of the Paivi and Kari Salmela. I was hosted by Santeri. The snow there was a few inches while we were there, but once they got over five feet of snow. While there, we went to school and the teachers would let us wonder in and out of classes and sit in the back of the class. Most classes were in Finnish, but one was in English. Classes were self contained like in Nativities second grade class. Their math was easy. They had a 15 minute recess every 45 minutes where they went outside to play. School hours were from 7-3. We were up at 5 am and in bed at 8 pm. The school lunch was terrible, they served polenta, which was much like mush, and liverwurst. I ate the 3 pieces of bread with butter every day. They didn’t go to church, because they were not Catholic, they were Lutheran. They do not always go to church as we do at Nativity, which I found it odd they did not go because they had been so interested in showing me their church. After the trip I had learned that there is nothing to be scared of traveling to a foreign country because most of the people I met in Finland were all welcoming and are very friendly. Also I hosted a Dutch student during International projects week. During International week we had 4 different countries come visit Nativity. The countries that came Russia, Hungry, Germany, and the Netherlands. The project was a huge success for me because I learned about four other countries other than Finland. The whole project for international studies has showed me that I now am actually a citizen of the world.
Nine Years of World Experience During my nine years
here at Nativity School, I have “traveled” the world. From learning
the continents song in third grade to taking the whole world test in sixth,
seventh, and eighth grades, I can now recite the countries backwards and
forwards. By welcoming delegations to Nativity and watching their cultural
shows, I know so much about many countries and their people. Through my
own foreign student exchange, going to Malaysia and hosting a Malaysian
student, I met a lot of people and made two best friends from the other
side of the world.
Around
The World In Eighty Days When I first heard about
the Certificate of International Studies I thought that it was just a
way to get students to do extra work and I knew that my mom would make
me do it. Now, working on the last requirement for it, I realize
that it has taught me more than I thought it would. Through this
experience I have realized that there is so much more to the world than
what we thought, but I also realized that the rest of the world is just
like us here. I started taking the Map Test of the World as soon as I could, and now it has become a friendly competition between my friends and I to see who can get the highest score. I know that the score isn’t the only thing that counts, but it is a way to make it more fun and to encourage more study. Even though Latin is not spoken as an official language, I have still enjoyed the two years I’ve taken it. It is fun to see how so many words in the English language are derived from Latin words. Knowing that fact and the meanings of many Latin words that I have learned over the years I am able to sometimes derive the meaning of a word that I don’t know from whichever Latin word it most resembles. I have also been told that by taking Latin it makes it much easier to switch into another language. Although I did not take part in an exchange over my years at Nativity I did go to Eurocamp. The difference between Eurocamp and an exchange is that there are no hosts with Eurocamp and it involves people from all over the world. When I went there were people from around twenty-two countries and we all stayed in what would be close to a summer camp type place. While there we shared a cabin with people from Pakistan who didn’t speak much English. We found that you don’t have to speak the same language as someone to communicate. I also learned that yes we’re from different sides of the world, but we couldn’t be more alike. While during Lent all of us participating in this program were asked to say the end of the day prayer for four days. When we had agreed to meet all of the requirements for the certificate I remembered nothing that said we had to lead in prayer. Whether it did and I couldn’t remember or it actually didn’t I am glad we had to. While attending a Catholic school it is important to pray, not only because we are forced to but because prayer helps. In our case it was not only a way to leave class a few minutes early, it was a way to get everyone thinking about God and what they could do to help. While doing the prayer during Lent we set up boxes in the cafeteria to collect money in to buy chairs for students in Africa. Before that there were a few failed attempts at sustaining contact with people from other countries, but through this experience I have seen the phrase “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” put into action. This time we were very successful. I can remember that we each counted the money put into the box we made and tried to see who had the most each time. Once, my friend had the most, beating me by about a dollar, but that’s not the important part. The important part is that we were both in the twenty dollar range after a week or two of collecting. There were other times when collections were high and that taught me that the school really cared. I didn’t doubt that they did, but it was amazing to me that the box my friend had counted the money from was for kindergarten through third grade. That shows that here we are taught to share at an early age. Like what my sister is preparing for now, when I was in sixth grade my group and I had to prepare a show for International Day. That is when you are assigned a group and a country and you prepare a presentation and a display board about it. The country I was assigned was India. What I learned in the process was that India had a hard struggle to gain independence just like us in the U.S. They had the great leader Mahatma Gandhi and we had George Washington. I learned that even though the two countries were far away we were still very closely related in what we have done and what we are doing now. Throughout this whole
experience I have learned that a little extra work has never killed someone
and to not stereotype about people from other countries. We are
all the same and now I can’t wait to further my studies of the world
in high school. The
Capstone Essay for The Certificate of International Studies Throughout my past years at Nativity the phrase “Lighting the Way,” has been embedded into my head. Before, it was just a saying that was meant to define our school and parish because, well, it sounded good. Looking closer, though, I see a deeper meaning. One way Nativity has truly fulfilled this description is through our international program. To me it was a normal, humdrum activity. A welcoming ceremony here, a map test there. It wasn’t until the past couple of years that I realized just how unique our program is. Now there is something even greater. Now students have the opportunity to receive the Certificate of International Studies. For me, the award has incorporated the last four years of my education at Nativity, even though the certificate was just introduced this year. Now as my years at Nativity come to a close, I have begun to realize just how lucky I am to be able to participate in such a program. In fifth grade I took
a great trip to Mexico City through the exchange program. Being the oldest
child, my family and I had never experienced anything quite like it. Blanca
Mar Hernandez visited here first and we had an awesome time. The two weeks
were full of sled rides, a hockey game, the aquarium, the Museum Center,
a cultural show, and much, much more. Lying in bed at night, the sounds
of a sleepover resonated from the room, laughing, whispering, and rarely
silence. There was no difference because Mar was from Mexico and I, America;
we were just two great friends. As a sixth grader, each Nativity student participates in International Day. The class is divided into groups and each group is assigned a country. My group and I were assigned Denmark. We were required to make a poster board, do a cultural show, dress up as someone that represented Denmark and make a drink, dinner dish or dessert. Doing our experience I learned how to waltz and how to make egg lemonade, a drink that incorporated raw egg and lemonade. To my surprise it was very good! By partaking in International Day I was able to taste, learn, and see the cultures of many different countries. The preparation for International Day taught me the importance of working as a team because, without the other members of my group, I would never have been able to accomplish and present what we did that day. I also learned how good it feels to work so hard on something and produce an even greater result. It was a lot fun and I was introduced to a lot of new information about a wide variety of countries. Ever since third grade I have been participating in the map studies program. Now the required tests seem to be a burden, but throughout the years I have learned just how helpful the knowledge I’ve acquired from these tests is. One of my non-Nativity friends once thought that Japan was an island in the Indian Ocean. While watching Jeopardy one night, there was a question about the sea between Southeast Asia and the Philippines. None of the three contestants knew the answer but with the help of the map tests, I knew it was the South China Sea. I am very glad that I was compelled to learn the criteria on these tests because now I have knowledge about our world that I might never have learned without the map tests. This year as one of the requirements for the Certificate of International Studies the other participants and I tried to do a peace or service project. Our first attempt came when we sent letters to a school in Mkushi, Zambia. Our goals with the peace project included sending two letters per month to the school, setting up pen pals, designing and maintaining a bulletin board of our progress, and writing an article for the newsletter every quarter. None of this was possible though without a response and after waiting a while we decided to try something else. We proceeded to write letters to a school in Nairobi, Kenya. Again we got no response. Finally we decided to just do a penny collection at school to raise money for a school in Tanzania. We were able to collect a good sum of money that I am sure will help those in need in Tanzania. For the past two years I have been studying Latin, one of the two foreign languages offered at Nativity. It has been a lot of hard work, but I don’t have any regrets. Right now I am waiting for the results of a Latin test that would enable me to start in Latin 2 as a freshman in high school. Even though I will be continuing in Latin in high school, the study of Latin has also opened many other doors for me in the language world. Just because Latin is a dead language that doesn’t mean it is inexistent in our world today. Since the Romans conquered much of Europe, many languages are derived from Latin. Spanish is very similar to Latin as well as English. In my love for reading, Latin has helped me decipher the meanings of many words whose definitions were unknown to me. Another reason I like Latin is because the translation of Latin in many ways is like a jigsaw puzzle, which is challenging but fun to finally put together. Latin has shown me that you never do anything for no reason because even though Latin is no longer spoken, there are many benefits to learning it. As Thomas Edison said,” I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” By learning Latin I have given myself 10,000 opportunities in which I would have a jumpstart because of my knowledge of Latin. The last requirement for the Certificate of International Studies is this essay. Participants in the program write the Capstone Essay as eighth graders, at the end of their time at Nativity. Through writing this essay I have learned many more lessons about my experiences with the international program at Nativity, just by looking back on all that I have done. This essay has given me the opportunity to teach and tell others about my experience with Nativity’s international program in the hopes that someone will follow in my foot steps. Because this is the first year for the Certificate of International Studies, I hope this essay containing the events required for the award will inspire others to take part in the program and receive the Certificate. For me, this hasn’t just been some other school thing. It took me out of the country, literally, as well as in the knowledge that I have obtained about our world.
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