East meets West as students from Waterford, China exchange visits

Waterford — When Waterford High School student Bella Richard visited China, she said she was pressured to try jellyfish by a classmate. “It’s like crunchy Jell-O,” Richard said. Bella was part of a delegation from the high school that visited the Shandong province in April. At the end of her month, her family will be hosting a Chinese exchange student.

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, 15 Chinese students will get the chance to experience American culture through the state’s sister school program with the Shandong Provincial Education Department, which aims to prepare students for life in a diverse world.

Besides tasting exotic Jell-O, Richard said she learned a few words in Mandarin, visited the Great Wall of China and admired China’s economic prowess.

She said she is excited to host a Chinese exchange student at her home.

“They were very kind to me and let me stay in their homes,” she said. “I figured I would return the favor.”

She said she wasn’t sure how the exchange students would view Waterford. They might not be as impressed with the school as one might think because their school is “massive,” she said.

The Chinese students have hundreds of teachers, and there could be as many as 50 students in a class, she said. Because they are used to a more crowded study environment, they might appreciate the spacious and well-equipped science labs at Waterford High, she said.

The Chinese students’ five-day itinerary includes taking classes at Waterford High, sightseeing at Mystic Seaport and visiting Quinnipiac University. Richard said she and her mom plan to take the exchange student to a football game and a favorite restaurant to show him or her “life in Waterford.”

The 15 students, accompanied by two teachers, are from Weihai #2 High School, said school psychologist Peter Hunt, who is helping facilitate the program. Hunt and former Waterford High School Principal Donald Macrino went to the Weihai school in 2005, and three years later, Weihai’s principal and a dozen of its students visited Waterford High.

The partnership between Connecticut and Shandong was established in 2003. The agreement called for the formation of sister schools in order to help create a cultural exchange for students and teachers. There are more than 100 partnerships between Connecticut and Shandong, according to a Connecticut Department of Education report.

“We really have to know other cultures in other countries and we can’t be naïve about, as a country, what other countries are about,” Hunt said.

He said in the future, he would like to see the two schools use Skype to share lessons, such as having a Weihai classroom view a marine biology class at Waterford High and a Waterford class view an English class at Weihai.

“In the case of the China exchange, China is a very old culture, but yet it’s a rising world power ... something that America is going to have to reckon with going forward,” Hunt said. j.somers@theday.com