ECUADOR STUDY TRIP

“Learning a foreign language is probably the single most impactful and empowering thing we can do. It’s changed me to my core. It’s helped me mature, become a better global citizen, and be a better neighbor here in Indianapolis.” — BRANDON FITZSIMMONS

ECUA

Sycamore students and alums hike in El Cajas National Park

ECUA DOR

Since his first year at Sycamore, in 2019, Spanish teacher Brandon Fitzsimmons had thought about launching a summer trip for students to a Spanish speaking country, and he wanted to go to Ecuador specifically. With past experiences leading study trips to foreign countries, the well-traveled teacher, known as “Profe’ Fitzsimmons” to his students, knew that his experience of working with the group Fundación Taylor nearly a decade ago as their assistant director made it a possibility that he could put together a group to travel from Sycamore to South America.

“I’m a graduate of Taylor University and they’ve had a really meaningful school-tocommunity connection there for almost two decades. A lot of my close friends down there have been a part of the program. For me, it changed my life when I was a student there,” Fitzsimmons says. “I think Ecuador was eye-opening for me to go back after almost a half decade of having been gone and to really have my eyes open again to the perfect place for an immersive experience.” Fundación Taylor is a program that provides training to professionals and students in various areas through local and foreign alliances with Taylor University. “I know that there is no more meaningful way to take a step forward and learn the language except for immersing yourself,” Fitzsimmons says. “I wanted our Sycamore students to have that opportunity if they were interested in it.” In the summer of 2022, Fitzsimmons was able to take a group of 14 students to Ecuador, match them with host families for a week, and make it possible for students to immerse themselves in the culture and the language of the country. He says the foundation works best with 12 to 15 students, and it worked out perfectly. There was one alumnus from 2020, three rising 8th Graders, and ten 2021 graduates.

The Sycamore group on the bus ride to El Cajas.

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Student stop for ice cream in downtown Cuenca “We felt that when we were looking at a group of 7th Graders going that might be best for them to be able to go with a friend,” Fitzsimmons says. “In some cases, there might be a case where siblings would go and maybe stay with the same host family. There were a couple of our students and their parents who decided they wanted to maximize immersion as a family. And those students loved every second of it.” Fitzsimmons says the real crux of the entire experience is the host family component. “If I go back to my first year here when I was kind of piloting an idea for a trip, the real richness comes with living with families, and the Fundación Taylor has a really extensive network. It reminds me a lot of the Sycamore community. It’s a bunch of folks who kind of come together and they share everything from education, to faith, to just community life.” Sycamore 8th Grader John Coutant was one of three current Sycamore students who made the trip. “My favorite part was hanging out with all of my friends in a different atmosphere than normal,” he says. “I will always remember all of the fun we had riding horses, taking mud baths, or even just talking in the buses.” Maria De Lourdes, who has a personal relationship with the Ecuadorian families, is the executive director of Fundaciõn Taylor and was the partner for Sycamore. Many of the families have been hosting students anywhere from 5 to 15 years. Fitzsimmons says they host mostly collegeage students but many of them also have their own children around our Sycamore students’ ages. “Maria really hit a grand slam and just paired our students with the right families,” he says. “They had the right types of host siblings and host parents with shared sets of interests and roughly similar age groups.”

Derek Ai, another of the current 8th Grade students who went on the trip, liked his host family experience too. “The host family was very friendly and the home I stayed at almost felt like my own house. I liked how nice and kind the family was.” He felt the immersion into family life mixed with the activities and experiences were what made the trip great and he was kept engaged with “hiking in the mountains in the Cajas National Park, horseback riding, going shopping in the market, and going to the Incan ruins.” For the eight-day program, students arrived in Cuenca on a Saturday around lunchtime. “It was a great time to arrive because lunch is the time that families culturally gather around the table every day, even on working days,” Fitzsimmons says. “That’s where they start to bond. So we were there for that first weekend lunch together. It also gave them a whole afternoon for the family to do anything that might be a great welcome event or activity in Ecuador. People often say Cuenca is a city that is very European and it’s almost like someone dropped a European Spanish City in the middle of the Andes Mountains. It is very beautiful and these families are proud of where they’re from. It’s warm and welcoming and safe for that part of the world. It’s remarkably safe in terms of health care, and in terms of relatively low levels of crime.” During the trip, the families receive the students and treat them as if they are another child in their family. “The families are trained, and I think naturally disposed to just love and welcome any guests and their families as though they were an additional part of their family,” Fitzsimmons says. Students were involved in a variety of projects. They had two weekends in Ecuador including five school days or five work days. During those days, students were able to go take collegelevel courses at a local, private university called Universidad del Azuay. “It’s a great university and staff there,” Fitzsimmons says. “That allowed the students an opportunity to step out and not just learn more about the culture and practice speaking. It was entirely immersive in Spanish.” The final project that the students were able to complete was a presentation about their trip to a room of about 50 individuals, mostly Ecuadorian, with the exception of Fitzsimmons and a couple of Sycamore parents that participated in the trip. The host

[ CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE ] Oscar Hyatt finds a spectacular view at El Cajas National Park

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Skyline view of the city of Cuenca families and a few of the local college students also attended. “It’s a great way to kind of get baptized by fire and get the jitters out in an auditorium full of 50 native speakers and have to talk in their language and try not to just read off of a PowerPoint or off an entire note card,” Fitzsimmons says. He says some of the 7th Graders (who are now Sycamore 8th Graders) have already seen how their language skills are at another level since they had that experience. “They’re cruising right now in Spanish class and it’s just clear that they’ve crossed onto another plane because of that immersive experience.” “We sent out a survey at the end of the trip and it was encouraging. We had 100% positive feedback,” he says. “I think there was not a single kid that said they wouldn’t recommend going back. In terms of the spirit of the trip, I’ve gotten to know my students pretty well. It was just neat to see them come alive in ways I’d never seen here within our walls. I mean, they’re awesome kids doing awesome work with awesome potential. But to see them thrive abroad and then be navigating a marketplace together and be going out of their way to use Spanish when they could just cut corners and use Spanglish or just insist on finding someone who speaks English was awesome to see.”

“I’ve been dreaming of going everywhere in the world since I was five years old,” Fitzsimmons says. “I never thought about Ecuador until I lived with an Ecuadorian, who was my roommate at Taylor, and we became close friends. And he said, ‘Come with my family for a summer,’ and that was one of the best summers of my life. It changed everything. I would not be here right now if it wasn’t for that. I don’t expect our students to go on and become Spanish teachers, but I tell them, ‘Having this is a tool, as something in your belt, whether you’re a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a business owner, or a psychologist.’ Being bilingual or multilingual, having multicultural understanding only makes you more effective and more impactful. It does not just enrich others’ lives, but it will enrich your own life. You can’t go wrong. You can’t.” •