A group of Blaine County seventh- and eighth-grade dual language students will get to practice their Spanish skills for a week this month in the Central American country of Costa Rica.
The students, members of the Viaje Club, have been fundraising and saving their money since last fall to pay for the trip, which is costing $2,500 per student.
"We started planning fundraising back in September and have been working on it since," said Molly Michalec, Latino services coordinator for the Blaine County School District.
Michalec will be trip leader. Other chaperones will be Hailey Elementary School dual language teacher Juan Salamanca and parent Katie Nasvik.
Students participating in the trip are Nate Nasvik, Seth Solissalamanca, Anthonya Lizarraga, Angelica Ortega, Oscar Ortiz Gutierrez, Eva Moya and Gisel Guzman Gutierrez. Also, Maria de Jesus Aguayo Flores, Avery Closser, Kimberly Herrera, Nate Thomas, Cassidy Miley, Lily McNeil and Jasnelly Mendoza.
The group has been honing its Spanish language skills since kindergarten. The eighth-graders represent the first group of Blaine County students to enter the district's Dual Immersion Program, in which students are taught half in English and half in Spanish.
The Dual Immersion program is now in its ninth year. Next year, it will expand to Wood River High School.
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Nearly 600 students are enrolled in the program. The typical Dual Immersion class consists of half native Spanish speakers and half native English speakers. The program affords both groups the opportunity to become proficient in a second language.
The Viaje Club—"viaje" in Spanish means travel—raised $14,000 over the course of the school year to help some of the students afford the trip.
Numerous fundraising activities were held, including a Halloween haunted alley, dances, bracelet and T-shirt sales, dinner and food sales, babysitting night and a Día de los Niños festival.
The group will leave for Costa Rica on June 16 and return on June 24.
Michalec said the group chose Costa Rica "because it is a Spanish-speaking country with many opportunities for adventure, fun and learning."
A presentation prepared by the students states that the group hopes to learn about Costa Rica's culture, wildlife and native habitat and about the environment and "importance of the rain forest." The group also wrote that the trip will give the students the chance to be away from families and learn to be responsible for themselves.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Next stop, Spain
The Viaje Club's plan for summer 2011 is a visit to Spain. An introductory meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today, June 2, in the Distance Learning Lab at Wood River High School. Dual Immersion students who will be in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades next year are invited, along with their parents, to learn about the trip.
Members of the Blaine County School District Viaje Club, comprised of seventh- and eighth-grade Dual Immersion students, held a Halloween fundraiser last fall to help pay for a club excursion to Costa Rica in June. Photo by
