Study-abroad student Elijah Crowder, a senior (back row, middle), stands with his host family, the Bernal-Castros, in Aguazul, Colombia, at a New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31, 2023. According to Crowder, he was exposed to Colombian culture and family values while studying abroad for five months. “One thing I noticed is they value family a lot more. I wasn’t quite used to everything, you’re with the family three meals a day or you go to the grocery store together, they’re much more family-oriented people and that surprised me pleasantly,” Crowder said. Photo courtesy of Elijah Crowder
Study-abroad opportunities are a choice for Clarke Central High School students to further the study of foreign languages.
After spending five months as a study-abroad student in Aguazul, Colombia, senior Elijah Crowder feels he came back to Athens with a new appreciation for language acquisition.
“Speaking a language is like cooking or driving a car. You can watch videos on how to do it, you can read books on how to do it, but at the end of the day, if you want to learn the skill, you have to speak the language,” Crowder said. “Being in a place where you’re with native speakers, and you’re immersed, it’s able to facilitate speaking in a better way than a classroom often is.”
While in Colombia, Crowder attended Colegio San Francisco de Asis, a school for 3 to 18-year-olds, during the fall semester of the 2023-24 school year. According to Crowder, spending five months in Aguazul took some adjustments.
“(The school) was great. Of course, it was sort of strange at first, but I think high school is everywhere is somewhat similar,” Crowder “So it wasn’t it wasn’t too difficult to make friends and build relationships.”
“Speaking a language is like cooking or driving a car. You can watch videos on how to do it, you can read books on how to do it, but at the end of the day, if you want to learn the skill, you have to speak the language.”
— Elijah Crowder, a senior
Crowder is now taking AP Spanish Language and Culture to further his understanding of the Spanish language, but it was CCHS foreign language department teacher Lynne Sparks who told Crowder of this opportunity for studying abroad.
“(Studying abroad) is for (CCHS students’) lives because we live in a small world, the United States is such a small world, and there’s so much more out there and there’s so many different tastes and flavors and attitudes and aspects,” Sparks said. “I love (the students) to see it and to experience it.”
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Sparks wants to give CCHS students the opportunity to travel at an affordable rate while still in high school by starting monthly payments two years ahead, because international travel affected her life as a young person.
“When I was 21 years old I moved to Mexico. It was the first time I had been in a foreign country. When I landed there my perception of everything changed my concepts and tolerance, everything changed, and it changed who I am,” Sparks said. “That first change of environment changed my whole trajectory of life.”
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