After living and working here for the past nine months, Clearview’s Amity Interns will be heading back to their home countries at the end of the school year. On May 18, Clearview hosted a farewell picnic to thank them and give the community a chance to wish them well.

 

There was hugging and tears as each Amity and their host family was called forward by Advisor Susan Hasbrouck and given a thank you gift to remember their time at Clearview.

 

“It makes Clearview such a richer place to learn about their lives and where they come from,” she said. “Your kids hear all these different languages and vocabularies.”

 

Clearview was home to seven Amity Interns this year, Romina Muñoz from Chile, Viviana Sánchez from Colombia, Rocío Núñez from Spain, Diana Rodríguez from El Salvador, Yubeth Medina Olaya from Colombia, Montserrat Clop from Spain, and María Arribas, also from Spain.

 

Montserrat Clop said she would miss everything about Clearview, as well as her host family and friends she made. When she returns to Spain she already has a job teaching fourth grade.

 

“It was a really good experience and I don’t want to leave,” said María Arribas. “I will miss the time with my host family and my host sisters who dance a lot. I love it.”

 

She enjoyed all the traveling she was able to do, and when she returns to Spain she will be studying for her masters in special education. 

 

Rocío Núñez said she enjoyed getting to know her host family and all the traveling she was able to do, and will miss her host mom and the teachers at Clearview she worked with. She will be working and studying psychology in Spain.

 

“What I enjoyed most was being with the little kids,” said Diana Rodríguez. “They hug you and love you. Sometimes you’re feeling sad and they give you a hug and you feel better.”

 

She also enjoyed traveling, and will miss the kids she lives with as well as the other Amities. Once she returns to El Salvador she will be finishing college in December, and then looking for a job or another experience similar to the Amity program.

 

“I’d love to travel the world,” she said. “My grandpa is my inspiration, he was an interpreter and traveled everywhere.”

 

Yubeth Medina Olaya said her life changed completely being here, experiencing different foods, transportation, landscape and culture, and she will miss her host family and the students. Back home in Colombia she is an English teacher, and she wants to study how to teach Spanish as a foreign language like she did at Clearview.

 

Viviana Sánchez said she enjoyed spending time with her host family, and will miss them and Clearview’s students and teachers. 

 

“I will also miss nature,” she said. “I’m from a big city, it’s so relaxing and peaceful here. I’m not going to miss winter.”

 

Back in Colombia she needs to present her research project in order to graduate college. She wants to find a job in bilingual education, teaching English and Spanish to foreigners, and wants to come back to the U.S. as a tourist.

 

“I enjoyed working with the children, my favorite is first grade,” said Romina Muñoz. “In Chile I have worked with high school and middle school students, so I enjoy the young ones.”

 

She said she would miss her host family the most, and will be defending her thesis when she returns home. She hopes to be an English teacher when she graduates.

 

Clearview has welcomed Amity Interns to their school for the past seven years. Amity Interns are native speakers from foreign countries and are similar to student teachers. They travel to the United States to work with students who are learning to speak their native language, which in Clearview’s case is Spanish. They stay with host families so they are completely immersed in U.S. culture.