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An educational exchange link that has extended across the ocean for more than two decades has still held strongly as the SUNY Fredonia campus welcomed a dozen student teachers from a Wales university. SUNY Fredonia President Dennis Hefner hosted his annual reception for the incoming students from Swansea Metropolitan University, who observe and work with teachers at Pine Valley Elementary School during their time in the country, in his on-campus home. Faculty from Swansea, SUNY Fredonia and Pine Valley were also present at the reception. According to Mandy Peace, a senior lecturer at Swansea, the exchange program provides the education students a chance to see different educational systems and study different methods of teaching. What they observe and experience here may not only be sources of further examination once they return to Wales, but elements may be implemented in their careers, as well. “It’s very enriching,” Peace said. This year’s exchange will be reciprocated after the SUNY Fredonia graduation, when students from the local campus will travel to Swansea and the surrounding schools. President Hefner, who said he traveled to Wales through the program about eight years ago, noted that the experience is equally edifying for SUNY Fredonia students. “It’s a great opportunity for students from both sides of the Atlantic to see how education is practiced in another country,” he said. “I’ve talked to Fredonia students who have been to Swansea, and they’ve told me that they’ve felt this experience made them better teachers when they started out because there were some things that they saw over there that they thought were perfect for using in classrooms here.” The Swansea students arrived about two weeks ago and have already spent some time at Pine Valley. Charlotte Thomas and Laura Gibbs described the school as larger than those they have attended, and with smaller class sizes. The students, while curious, have treated them well. “They’re very interested in our accents,” Thomas said. “Yeah, they keep trying to imitate us,” Gibbs added. David Briska, a Pine Valley Elementary teacher who has been involved with the exchange program since the school district joined in 1990, said that having the Swansea students come to the elementary school is something the elementary students look forward to each year — often with a multitude of questions for the student teachers to field. And from the developing perspective of a young child who may have never been outside the homeland, these questions can range from whether they, too, watch television in Wales or if they really all live in castles. “Other than what they see on TV about foreign places, they really have no idea what it’s like,” Briska said. “So for them, it’s an opportunity to find out how similar our societies are.” The Swansea students will not spend all of their time at Pine Valley. In addition to visiting New York City on the way to Western New York, educational trips around Chautauqua County, as well as Amish Country and the Seneca Nation of Indians school system, often take place as part of the program. “It’s serious; it goes way beyond what you would see as a tourist.” said Dr. Mira Berkley of the SUNY Fredonia College of Education. But the sightseeing will not end there for many of the students. While Pine Valley is on spring break from April 4-19, they will have the opportunity to travel the country entire — and then some. Thomas plans to go to California. Gibbs intends to stretch both North and South, visiting Orlando, Fla. and Toronto, Ontario. The students will then return to Pine Valley and close out their month in America, leaving April 23. According to Hefner, student teachers from the University of Plymouth in England tend to accompany the Wales students each year, observing in Fredonia and Dunkirk schools, but a visa processing issue forced them from joining in the program this year. SUNY Fredonia participates in additional international programs that include students traveling to and from Japan and Dunkerque, France. The full list of Swansea students who are visiting the region this year is: Hayley Plant, Stephanie Owen, Lauren Mackinnon, Ceri Roderick, Sasha Minchella, Nadine Bellany, Daniel Stickler, Lauren Jones, Tabitha Brunker, Rebecca Nelson, Charlotte Thomas and Laura Gibbs.

 

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