Highlights from our team's expectations for their exchange

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Highlights from our team's thoughts about being a Cultural Ambassador

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Highlights from our team's thoughts from our team about our first day of the exchange

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If you are visiting: Describe the trip to your Sister School Community.: We traveled by bush plane to Barrow and stayed all night at Barrow High School. In the morning we flew to Anchorage. OUr sister school ambassadors and sponsor picked us up. We went to Costco for lunch and shopping and then drove to Wasilla. That evening we went bowling and then to Sam's house for a pot luck. Each student ambassador's family brought their traditional favorite dish. That night we had a slumber party before we went to our host families.
If you are visiting: What are your first impressions of the community you are visiting?: Wainwright students said: "I was surprised it was so small."
"I thought it was big." "I liked it. I thought it was cool." "I thought it would be all close like Wainwright, but it was all spread out."
If you are visiting: What were the best parts of being welcomed to the community?: Wainwright students said: "The best part was when they welcomed us at the airport. They had welcoming signs, and they had seemed really glad to see us."
If you are visiting: What are you most looking forward to doing now that you are here?: Comments from Wainwright students: "I looked forward to going sledding." "I looked forward to shopping." "I looked forward to shopping." "I looked forward to taking a lot of pictures."

We got to do all of those things!

What are some of the important things that you have learned about your Sister Schools culture from this visit?: The first comment from a student when asked this question was, "What culture?" Other students agreed. They said that they didn't see the Wasilla kids as being a part of a certain culture like themselves. They see them as being from a big city.
How do you think that this visit has changed how you think about yourself and your own culture?: The Wainwright kids said that it made them feel proud of their Inupiat culture. They enjoyed sharing their village and their traditions with the Wasilla group, and it made them proud of their subsistence lifestyle and living in an Inupiaq village.

What are some of the important things that you have learned about your Sister Schools culture from this visit?: What culture? We didn't really see that they have a culture like we do. What we see is that they are from a city. When we had our welcome dinner at Sam's house, each student brought their family's favorite traditional dish, and they were from all different cultures.
How do you think that this visit has changed how you think about yourself and your own culture?: It made us realize that we are really proud of our culture. We appreciate being from Wainwright and see that everyone is really close and helps each other.

1) What was the greatest thing about this exchange?: The friendships that we made. The trust that grew between us. The fun that we had. We were also glad to get to show off our culture.
2) If you could have changed one thing about your trip to your Sister School community, what would it be?: The bell schedule at Wasilla High. It was too confusing!
3) As you looked at your Sister School’s Destination Log, what did you notice about how your Sister School Cultural Ambassadors see your community?: They were impressed by how friendly our village is and how everybody knows and cares about everybody else.
4) How does their perspective influence your view of your community?: We're glad that our community is so friendly. It makes us proud.
5) What are two things that you learned about your Sister School community’s culture as a result of your trip?: We've talked before about "what culture?" We noticed that there are lots of different cultures in a small area. They also don't know each other and take care of each other like we do.
6) How are the people in your Sister School community different than the people in your home community?: They don't have the community connections that we do. Just living isn't as hard for them because they aren't so isolated from things.
7) What do you think the people of your Sister School community have most in common with the people in your community?: They have problems with drugs and alcohol like we do.
8) During the exchange, when were the moments you felt most like you were being a Cultural Ambassador (i.e., sharing culture, learning culture, or building bridges)?: When we were in classes and they asked us to share some Inupiat words. There were other times that people would ask us about where we live, and we shared things about our culture.
9) Why do you think it’s important for students to be Cultural Ambassadors in Alaska?: It's good to know other cultures and get to know other people. Our state is so big that people really don't know about all of the people in their own state.
10) What are two things you learned about yourself by participating in this program?: We learned to respect ourselves and our culture. We also learned to trust ourselves just by going on this trip.
11) What are two things you learned about your community?: We realized that people in our school are friends. We never really looked at it that way before. We also saw our community through their eyes, and we learned that we have respect for it.
12) What are some things you think that all Alaskans have in common?: We all are proud to live in Alaska. People all over the state like to take advantage of the things that it has to offer like hunting and fishing. We just depend on our hunting and fishing more that some people do.