Spanish foreign exchange program underway at DeKalb High School

DeKALB – DeKalb High School is preparing to welcome a group of students from Villena, Spain this fall as part of a District 428 exchange program that also will send DeKalb students overseas.

The district’s foreign exchange program was put on hold in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and will return in the fall after the DeKalb School District 428 board unanimously approved the high school program at a recent meeting.

About 10 to 20 students and two or three chaperones from I.E.S. Navarro Santafé, a public high school in Villena, Spain, will visit DeKalb High School, with the tentative dates Oct. 1 through Oct. 9, 2022. The students will stay in the homes of DeKalb High School students and will attend classes at DeKalb High School. The students from Spain are responsible for paying for all travel and entertainment costs while they are here.

DeKalb High School Principal James Horne asked the board for permission to participate in the program during a meeting held April 5.

“The trip will give high school students from both DeKalb and Spain the opportunity to practice world language skills and experience a different culture,” Horne said.

In June 2023, DeKalb High School students will travel to Spain and attend school in Spain for a week. The students will stay at the homes of the Spanish students who will have visited DeKalb in October 2022.

In addition to attending classes at I.E.S. Navarro Santafé in Villena, DeKalb High School students will also visit the cities of Madrid, Valencia and Alicante, as well as participate in additional educational and cultural activities. The tentative dates of travel are June 14 through June 24, 2023. If more than 20 DeKalb High School students want to go on the trip, priority will be given to those who host a Spanish student in their home in October of 2022.

Students will pay the cost of their trip, as well as split the expenses of having two or three chaperones. The estimated cost of the trip will be between $1,500 and $2,000 for each student.

Over the years, DeKalb High School students have participated in five exchange programs with a high school in Spain and they have taken four trips to Costa Rica. A student trip to Mexico was planned for May 2020 but had to be canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeKalb High School students previously visited Villena, Spain in 2019.