Baja Bound

Spanish 3 and 4 students immersed themselves in the Spanish language and Mexican culture as they spent a week in Todos Santos with language teachers Jenny McKenzie and Kat Jackson and Director of Operations Christine Imming.

Baja Bound students faced many triumphs and challenges through immersive experiences such as shadowing students at Palapas High School, creating an art project for elementary students at the Emiliano Zapata School, and overcoming the language barrier to communicate with locals. Along with those rich immersion experiences, teachers planned fun learning activities such as cooking lessons with a local family, a boat ride, beach time, swimming with sea lions, and a short hike to Canyon de la Zorra.

Profe Kat shared her takeaways: “I think the Baja Bound Osprey Block was an amazing experience for students to learn a lot of Spanish in the first week and then apply it to an immersive experience in Mexico. Students also met with a lot of schools in Mexico, so they were able to share culture and a bit about themselves. Students were able to collaborate and learn what it's like to live together with the same group of people for 8 days.”

Junior AJ Bonanno shared, “ My favorite part of Osprey Block was being able to talk with native Spanish speakers and being able to have that experience. Authenticity is impossible to replicate, and something that I will be taking away is that there's really no way to replace going out into the world and applying what we have learned.”