By Tiffany Feng
Staff Writer
While most Costa students spend their time hanging out with friends or working on last minute homework assignments, Baja Club has taken time out of the day to help foreign exchange students from Santa Rosalia, Mexico visit Manhattan Beach.
Mira Costa’s Baja club has been around for 13 years, helping bring students over from Santa Rosalia, Baja California of Mexico, through the foreign student exchange program. This program is sponsored by the Sister Cities of Manhattan Beach, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges between two cities. The Sister City Program primarily provides financial support for Mexican students to travel here and also donates generously to the club who then in turn provide the exchange students with a more fulfilling experience.
Link: Lean more about the Sister Cities of Manhattan Beach
“It’s not so much a charity, it’s more so like a cultural immersion,” Co-President of the Baja Club, Renee Fournell said. “Practicing the language is awesome and some of my best friends are there…I always love seeing them every year.”
Throughout the year, Baja Club mainly helps generate money for travel necessities, such as air fares and transportation, or providing essential items for Mexican families, like ambulances. Money is raised from holding fundraisers, such as club days or donations from Ortega, a mexican restaurant in Redondo Beach, making it so that the club is able to host students from Santa Rosalia’s local high school for one week during the month of July.
“It’s amazing to see exactly where their donations go when the Mexican students are able to enjoy new experiences, like going to Disneyland or a Dodger’s game,” Fournell said. “When we travel to Mexico, they always take us to experience new things and we want to return the favor.”
Within the club, the two presidents: Renee Fournell and Max Taylor, are responsible for planning all the trips, sorting out all the events they have prepared for the exchange students, as well as making sure each individual has a welcoming home to stay at. The club also has other members including a secretary and a treasurer who take an active role in further organizing the program. Parents of the members also heavily influence what happens around the club by helping with fundraising, organizing and housing.
Link: Learn more about hosting an exchange student
“The best part is meeting and becoming friends with kids from a different country,” Co-President Max Taylor said. “The most challenging part is having to organize the trips to and from Mexico and the housing arrangements for when the exchange students come to stay in our homes.”
Within the near future, the club is hoping for the Manhattan Beach community to get more involved with the program. Hosting the exchange students, in addition to just traveling here, means taking them to experience new things, like beach oriented activities. By getting the community to know more about the program, the students can hope for a more eventful stay here in California, Taylor said.
“When we travel to Mexico, the people of Santa Rosalia put on a special night for us with performances and important political figures come and speak to us,” Taylor said. “I think it would be really nice if our community could do the same for them as they do for us.”
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