Students sit in Spanish class, ready to receive yet another piece of paper. This time, however, the paper is not the usual sheet of vocab or list of conjugations. Rather, it is a letter from their new pen pals in Peru.
For the past three years, Piedmont’s AP Spanish class has participated in an exchange of letters in partnership with the Brüning School, located in Trujillo, Peru. This project was initiated by Spanish Teacher Deysi Sahagon in an effort to help students at both schools get additional practice in the languages they’re learning.
“I have a friend that works in a private school in my hometown in Peru, in Trujillo, and so we decided to exchange letters with students so that [Piedmont] students can practice their Spanish and the students from Peru can practice their English,” Sahagon said.
Sahagon said that she started the pen pal project at MHS in 2020, and a year later brought it to her AP Spanish Students at PHS.
The letters are not sent and received physically. Instead, both PHS and the Brüning School use digital platforms to write and deliver them to each other.
“We get all the letters, we print them out, we give them to students, they write a reply with their corrections of the letter that they send in a picture,” Sahagon said.
Normally, the letters would be sent and received from August through December. This year, however, due to a lack of compatibility between both schools’ online platforms, students didn’t receive their first letter from Peru until three weeks after they were sent.
“They are doing it through Google Classroom, but we use Schoology, so Ms. Sahagon had to make her own classroom account and log in and individually print out each letter, so I know it’s going to be a difficult process,” junior Amina Greene said. “But I’m looking forward to it.”
Senior Ayaan Jajodia, who took AP Spanish last year and participated in the pen pal project, said he hopes that current students make the most of the unique experience, as his class similarly had the opportunity to share only around four letters.
“I think that is a good opportunity to find someone who is in a completely different situation than yourself and, especially if the program lasts a little longer than it did last year, I hope some students this year will be able to make some friends in Peru,” Jajodia said.
Greene said she’s already found subjects she and her pen pal, Luana, can connect over, such as a certain musical artist.
“She said she does taekwondo, she talked about her puppy that ran away, and she also said she loved Lana Del Rey,” Greene said. “She seems like a very sweet girl and I’m looking forward to getting to know her.”
Senior Juliana DeYoung said that, after receiving her first letter, she has also discovered similarities between herself and her pen pal.
“She is a very good dancer apparently, she likes to go on walks, she loves nature, she has a sister, she likes to bake with her, which is nice cause I have a sister, I like to bake and I like nature, so we already have something in common,” DeYoung said.
Sahagon said while the main purpose of the assignment is for students in both countries to practice their English and Spanish, she is also hopeful for other outcomes beyond language.
“[I hope students] get connected with another person from a different country, maybe learn a little bit more, or see some similarities or differences that they have,” Sahagon said.
DeYoung said that she is very excited to continue the process of learning about and communicating with her pen pal and observing similarities and differences in their cultures.
“It’ll be interesting to learn what life is like there and the things that a daily teenager would do and then compare with us,” DeYoung said. “What’s daily life in Peru like versus my daily life?”
