2014 Student Exchange

Fifteen excited local students were accepted into the 2014 Sugito Student Exchange. 

Representing Cape Naturaliste College, Cornerstone Christian College, Georgiana Molloy Anglican School and MacKillop Catholic College, the Busselton students welcomed the students from Sugito from the 9 – 18 August and then experienced their homestay in Sugito from 28 September until 9 October 2014.

For the first time, this year students were asked to make a short presentation (in any format they chose) about why they wanted to be included in the exchange.  The interview panel members were extremely impressed by the calibre of these, many of which were power-point presentations.

The program for the Sugito students whist in Busselton included visiting the Reptile Centre, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, Dunsborough Primary School, Ngilgi Cave and Cowaramup.

Whilst in Sugito the Busselton students, as well as attending local Junior Schools, visited Sugito-daini  primary  School, did a Glico factory tour, shopped at Hanyu Aeon Mall(shopping centre), experienced Indigo-dyeing and visited Tokyo Disneyland.

Greg Hopkins who had travelled with last year’s students was joined by Kellie Markwell, a Media Studies Teacher from Cape Naturaliste College. Both teachers accompanied the students to Sugito and found they gained a huge amount themselves from the experience.

 Personal Testimonial - Casey Triplett

“Through my experience with the Sugito student exchange programme, I have made a lifelong friend whose culture I was so blessed to experience.  Although we are different in so many ways due to our diverse cultures, we had so many similarities in our lives as we were both teenagers who were experiencing and travelling the world.  I learnt to respect and appreciate our different cultures and our different ways of living and I believe it has expanded my perspective on our multi -cultural world. 

  Even though there was a language barrier, what was so surprising to me was that we could still communicate through the fact that we were all humans and teenagers experiencing the same opportunities.  We still communicate to this day through email and we share a love of dance which we often chat about.

I am so grateful for participating in the exchange programme and I will remember it for the rest of my life. I wish to visit my new friend again one day and I hope she will get back to Busselton this year as she plans.”

Casey Triplett

GMAS