Students, teachers selected for Sister City delegations
Students from area schools will embark on a trip to Hanamaki, Japan, Sunday where they will represent Hot Springs and Garland County in the Sister City Program.
Student delegates will spend about a week in Hot Springs’ Sister City of Hanamaki, staying with host families and immersing themselves in education and cultural experiences, according to a news release.
The delegation who will leave Sunday include Zakary Butler, Fountain Lake High School; Finnegan Riley, Lake Hamilton High School; Nina Thomas, Hot Springs World Class High School; Kaliyah Jackson, Hot Springs World Class High School; Mackenzie Shelton, Cutter Morning Star High School; Bayley
Brown, Mountain Pine High School; Jonah Nester, Lakeside High School; Emily Talos, Lakeside High School; Georgia Gooch, Lakeside High School; and Katie Hope, student mentor, Fountain Lake.
Students applied in January, according to Mary Zunick, executive director of the Hot Springs National Park Sister City Foundation.
“The top applicants were selected for interviews, and from those, the top scoring applicants were selected to travel to Hanamaki,” Zunick said.
Students live with a host family and during the day participate in educational opportunities, she said.
“It’s all about learning what life is like for a teenager in their sister city,” she said, noting many of the families of students who have traveled from Hanamaki to Hot Springs will serve as host families on this trip.
“Many of these students have visited us and they are excited to reciprocate and host our students,” she said.
This year, Zunick said students from across the county are represented.
“This is the first year Mountain Pine has had a student represent them and at one time in the past Cutter Morning Star had a student participate,” she said. “So we have great representation from across the county.”
The student delegation has been meeting for months to prepare for the trip, and Zunick said many of the students received scholarships to travel.
Many students, she said, would not be able to attend without the scholarships and support through the Sister City Foundation.
The Sister City Foundation sponsors the teachers as well as organizes fundraising opportunities like the inaugural Cherry Blossom Festival held in March.
In mid-July, a delegation of teachers will spend a week in Hanamaki for an educational exchange, Zunick said.
Teachers will tour schools and have opportunities to visit parent-teacher organizations.
Teachers selected to visit Hanamaki include Fountain Lake Middle School Principal Frank Janaskie; K-12 English as a Second Language Coordinator Tracy Criss, of Lake Hamilton School District; and Secondary Science Teacher Matthew Balcome, of Lakeside High School.
Upon their return, student and teacher delegates will be expected to participate in Sister City Program activities. The teachers will incorporate what they have learned into classroom experiences for their students.