PC Embraces Argentinian Exchange Students During Two-Week Visit

Penn Charter welcomed nine new friends from Argentina for a two-week visit beginning December 3, part of an Upper School foreign exchange-student program organized by the Language and Culture Department.

Just beginning their summer break, the students from Escuela Martín Buber, a PC partner school in Buenos Aires, traveled straight from Philadelphia International Airport to the Gummere Library for a welcome reception with their host families and members of the Upper School faculty.

The next day, the exchange students toured campus and participated in art classes, a workshop on Penn Charter culture, classroom visits, and lunch with PC’s Spanish and Latino Student Association and Club Shalom. Their time at PC included attending some classes, as well as sports and activities, with their hosts, and participating in a mix of educational, cultural and recreational events, allowing them to explore American culture and history. They also enjoyed the Upper School Band and Choral Concert and engaged in service activities with the Center for Public Purpose, packing food for Katie’s Cupboard and making pies for community fridges and Covenant House.

Off campus, highlights of their time included a trip to the Reading Terminal Market and the Historic District in Philadelphia, where they also visited the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Penn Museum, and enjoyed a guided tour of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the German Christmas Market at Love Park and City Hall. The group also had the chance to visit Princeton University with Kim Berndt, director of Upper School.

In Washington, D.C., the exchange students visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian, and in New York City, they visited the United Nations and Rockefeller Center.

The exchange program aims to foster cultural exchange and mutual learning between students from different countries. Participating PC students look forward to visiting Argentina in the summer.