THUNDER BAY -- International high school students got a taste of local culture and history on Wednesday.
The International Student Fort Experience saw 30 students from Lakehead Public Schools interact with each other and enjoy activities rooted in local history.
“It’s an opportunity for our international students to get together and meet one another,” said public school teacher Sari Johnston. “We also want to get them to learn a bit about the history of Thunder Bay and the Old Fort.”
Students from countries such as Syria, China, and Thailand participated in traditional games such as lacrosse, or cooked pancakes alongside Fort William staff.
“We surveyed some of the (international) students last year, and they wanted to know who else was at the other schools,” Johnston said.
“So we came up with the idea that we would try and get the whole group together and build a community across the city and across the schools.” Ricardo Torres is a 10th grade student from Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute who moved to Thunder Bay from Mexico two years ago.
Torres said he looks forward to these events in order to get to know other people in the community and learn their cultures.
“We got to introduce ourselves when we were playing lacrosse, so that was really cool. There’s even some people who speak Spanish.”
The two-hour event was the second one organized in co-ordination with Lakehead Public Schools and the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association.
Johnston said it would be great to see the event continue for years to come.
“We hope to continue these types of activities in the future, and incorporate new students who come into our school system."
