Written By: Tia Agarwal

The Spanish Exchange Program will take place in June, and the participating Spanish students are very excited! The program is hosted by the Modern Languages Department in collaboration with the Oak House School in Barcelona and will take place from May 31 to June 11, 2025. RCDS students will predominantly shadow their student hosts, studying at the school in Spain and staying with a host family, all while practicing conversational Spanish. Aside from studying, the students will take part in a range of activities: cultural activities, such as a scavenger hunt, art museums with works by famous artists (including Picasso!), hiking to the highest point in Barcelona, and visiting the small coastal town of Sitges in the Catalonia region. While students are required to stay with a host family in Barcelona, the excursion to Sitges will allow them to explore a Spanish town on their own and practice agency. 

The program is led by Upper School Spanish teacher Profe Benítez-Meléndez, who will join the students on the trip. He explained that commuting to a school offers a distinctive opportunity because “students might experience taking the subway to get to school if their host family lives in the city.” While this is the first time RCDS is going on this trip, this is certainly not Benítez-Meléndez’s first time. When asked to share about previous trips, his response revealed the uniqueness of the experience. He recalled that one year, a host family had planned a wedding in another region of Spain, so the students attended the wedding with their host family and enriched themselves in Spanish culture. Benítez-Meléndez described another time in Madrid; during a scavenger hunt, three girls became lost and Benítez-Meléndez “waited for them for an hour, and then got a call from a random number, and it was the girls saying they were lost! They never forgave me, but I told them the point was to exercise their language skills and be part of an adventure.” However, there were some unpleasant experiences Benítez-Meléndez would rather not relive on the upcoming exchange program. Once, when a student left their wallet on the bus, Benítez-Meléndez had to “run behind the bus” until it stopped and the student could find their wallet. These few anecdotes shared by Benítez-Meléndez highlight the unforgettable memories and unique experiences that such trips create.

All the students attending this exchange program are extremely excited after being chosen through a competitive selection process. Summer Sisitsky ‘27 said, “I am extremely excited and grateful that I was selected for the Spanish exchange trip. I look forward to being able to immerse myself fully into a new place where I can develop my Spanish speaking skills, meet new people, and learn how school is in a different country!” 

Stay updated about the French trip going to Aix-en-Provence and the Mandarin trip to Shanghai in the future!