Another successful exchange for NACI students
- Details
- Published on Thursday, February 12, 2015
By Nora Heachuk
NACI
Sixteen Grade 9 French students from Neepawa Area Collegiate just returned from the first part of their two-week SEVEC reciprocal home-stay exchange with their “twins” from Beauceville, Quebec.
The students were participating in a national, subsidized student exchange program through the Society for Educational Visits and Exchanges in Canada (SEVEC). This program provides a unique opportunity for students to meet new people and experience diversity by travelling to another region of Canada and staying with a host family there. It is a wonderful learning and growing experience for students!
Besides the rich, cultural experience of living with a French-speaking family, the students also learn about going through airport security, packing their bags for a week-long stay and having to take responsibility for themselves. For some of these students, this would be their first time navigating both the Winnipeg and Toronto airports.
It would also be the first time that they would be so far away from their families for an entire week.
The NACI students and their teachers left Neepawa at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28. That evening, they were bussed to the École Jésus-Marie school in Beauceville where they met up with their twins and then settled in with their host-families for the week.
On Thursday morning, the 32 students and their teachers went to the Basilique Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, an enormous church very close to Quebec City, looking out on the St. Lawrence Seaway. After the visit of the church, the group went to “Les Chutes Montmorency” (Montmorency Falls) which are higher than Niagara Falls. Although it was -25C, water was still flowing in the middle of the falls. After some shopping and skating at the “Galeries de la Capitale”, the students headed back to their host families.
On Friday, the group was given a presentation on the history of Beauceville. They were also shown the process for making cheese and were given samples of different flavours of cheese curds produced locally. In the afternoon, the students went 10-pin bowling and were able to enjoy some billiards and arcade games.
During the weekend, students took part in a variety of activities with their host families. On Monday, the group was taken to le “Village de sports” where they spent the day tubing down aptly-named slopes such as: “the Himalayas” and “Everest”. On Tuesday, the last full day in Quebec, the students went back to Quebec City where they were able to get a birds-eye view of Quebec City, le Château Frontenac and the St. Lawrence Seaway for the Observatoire de la Capitale. From there, they went to Vieux Quebec and then visited the Musée de la civilisation where they could visit different exhibits including Animation, Greek and Roman Gods and the History of Quebec.
All too soon the week was over and they were heading back to Neepawa - leaving at 7 a.m. and arriving in Neepawa at 7 p.m. The group is now looking forward to hosting the students and their teachers from Beauceville in May.
