For the first time since 2019, Longmont ambassadors will be traveling to Mexico and Japan to foster relationships with people of many cultures.
The student exchange program through Longmont Sister Cities was put on hold through the pandemic, but it’s coming back this year stronger than ever with the most students ever participating, according to Executive Director Courtney Michelle.
“I think just globally there’s a big demand to travel now that the pandemic has lessened its grip on the planet,” Michelle said. “…This is the most people that have traveled with our Sister Cities program ever. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve all been at home and feeling stuck and all that COVID brought.”
Twenty ambassadors — which refers to the students in the exchange — and seven chaperones are going to each of the three sister cities.
“We call them ambassadors because we tell them … you are more than just a traveler,” Michelle said. “You represent your family, us, the city of Longmont. So we expect more — this is not just a fun trip. We’re meeting the mayor in Japan, and we're meeting the mayor in Mexico.”
The first exchange program took place in 1991 to Chino, Japan, followed by a program to Cuidad Guzman, Mexico in 1998. Longmont students were able to travel domestically last year to visit the newest sister city, the Northern Arapaho of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Ambassadors travel to the Northern Arapaho reservation this coming week, with the visits to Japan and Mexico scheduled for the middle of July. Students from Mexico and the Northern Arapaho will then visit Longmont at the end of July, with this being the Northern Arapaho’s first “trilateral exchange.”
Michelle said the organization was thrilled to be once again offering these cultural exchanges to young people in Longmont.
“If you have friends that you have met in person in another country, that opens your mind to the fact that all people are really essentially the same,” she said. “The differences between us, among us, are minuscule percentage wise compared to what we have similar. The different parts are what is really cool about all humans.”
Students will be participating in events later this summer to share their experiences, with a full schedule to be announced soon.
