To celebrate Exchange Day, Spirit representatives Katherine and Anna Marie went to Wisconsin to visit some of our participants and host cultural activities.
On August 6, Spirit partnered with fellow BridgeUSA sponsors AAG, Intrax, Interexchange, CIEE, and Greenheart to celebrate Exchange Day at Mirror Lake State Park. Participants and sponsor representatives helped do some light maintenance on trails in the park. They then went to the lake for games, lunch, and socializing. It was a great opportunity to help the community, meet fellow participants in the area, and celebrate exchange programs! Participants were happy to have the chance to meet their sponsors in person and ask any questions they had.
The next day, Anna Marie and Katherine took a group of twenty participants to Wisconsin Capitol in Madison for a tour and an opportunity to learn more about the history of Wisconsin. Participants had a great time taking photos of the beautiful building! They then enjoyed lunch on University of Wisconsin Madison’s Union Terrace overlooking Lake Mendota.
After lunch, the group took a tour of the university led by current university students. They were able to walk around campus, visit classrooms, and imagine what a typical day might be like for an American college student. Participants were interested to hear about classes in the United States and asked the guides how they had selected their majors. Anna Marie and Katherine enjoyed talking with participants about similarities and differences between UW Madison and the participants’ universities. Many of them were impressed with size of the university and mentioned that their universities at home were much smaller, sometimes just a single building. They were also interested to learn how many students lived on campus. While some of the participants lived in dorms at universities in their home countries, others lived with their parents and commuted to school. Finally, they were impressed by all of the non-academic events the University offered.
Katherine and Anna Marie had a great time spending the day with participants and hearing about their time in the United States!