A Look Back On A Visit From A Sister School

By Eliza Hallabeck

“The response has been overwhelmingly successful,” said Newtown High School Assistant Principal Jason Hiruo the week following the visit from NHS’s sister school, Liaocheng No. 3 Middle School.

The delegates from the sister school arrived from the Shandong Province in China on January 31, and they left on February 7, but their visit will have a lasting impact on NHS.

Other schools have since been contacting Mr Hiruo to discuss the effective itinerary that was developed for the delegates’ stay.

“Word got out that we provided a great time for the delegates,” said Mr Hiruo, “while at the same time solidifying out bond.”

Mr Hiruo said Gao Haiyan, a lead English teacher from Liaocheng No. 3 Middle School, has been particularly helpful throughout the process of creating the bond between the schools.

“She’s really been supportive of our school,” Mr Hiruo said, “and really helping me.”

He said the process of communication between the two schools has been incredible, because it is mostly done through email correspondence.

Members of the sister school who visited NHS were Principal Tian Fengkui, Academic Director Zhao Lei, Director of Senior 2 Ma Jinyan, English teacher Gao Haiyan, students Tian Lin, Fang Yixian, Ma Xinyu, Sun Bohan, Jiang Xiaowen, Niu Yibin, Cui Zonghan, Bai Hanwen, Bian Wei, and Qi Cheng.

Since his visit to Liaocheng No. 3 Middle School in May with NHS Social Studies teacher Martha Parvis, Mr Hiruo said he has been receiving emails daily from students he met. These correspondences have been encouraging him to continue to push for the partnership.

“The whole school was impacted by this,” said Mr Hiruo.

From visiting classrooms to meeting teachers, the delegates were encouraged throughout their stay to experience daily life in Newtown High School.

“There were so many things that went into each specific thing that I planned,” said Mr Hiruo, and this, he added, helped to give the delegates an amazing experience.

During the delegates stay, they were divided and stayed with volunteer host families in the area. While some stayed in Newtown, host families were also from outside of the town. Both Liaocheng No. 3 Middle School Principal Tian Fengkui and English teacher Gao Haiyan were hosted at the Hiruos’ home in Southbury.

“Our experience was great,” said Mr Hiruo.

Every morning, like every other host family, Mr Hiruo said, he made breakfast, to give the visitors a typical American breakfast.

“We tried some of their food,” Mr Hiruo said. “We showed them some of ours.”

On the first night of their stay, which was Super Bowl Sunday, Mr Hiruo said the delegates and his family made more than 200 dumplings.

“They’re wonderful people,” said Mr Hiruo.

Every night, after the delegates returned from that day’s itinerary, Mr Hiruo said they tried to share more aspects of American culture with them, like watching the news, movies, and playing on a Nintendo Wii. Mr Hiruo said Mr Tian liked playing the virtual bowling game the best.

During the delegates tour of the Yale University on February 4, Mr Hiruo said they learned that one out of five students at the university speak Chinese, and there are roughly 11,000 students attending the university.

Since his experience Mr Hiruo has started working on writing a handbook on how to write an itinerary.

“I’m very pleased with how it turned out,” said Mr Hiruo.

He said during the stay the students at NHS showed a great deal of respect for the delegates.

“There were so many friendships that developed out of this,” he said.

On the last day, when the delegates were leaving he said, “The tears that were flowing were just incredible. People didn’t want them to leave. They didn’t want to leave.”

“The goal is to expand this,” said Mr Hiruo, and added that even children at the elementary level can have an exposure to an ancient culture and a super power.