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Health & Fitness

HANGZHOU FOREIGN LANGUAGE SCHOOL STUDENTS VISIT WEST ORANGE HIGH SCHOOL Schools have been Sister Schools since 2010

Yesterday morning at West Orange High School a welcome breakfast was held for students and teachers from the Hangzhou Foreign Language School in Hangzhou China. The Hangzhou school has been Sister Schools with West Orange High School since 2010.

In 2010 the Chinese program of the West Orange Public Schools was selected as a member of the first “20 Confucius Classrooms” in the United States by the Asia Society, and the Hanban, the Central Chinese Education Committee.  The mission of this program is to serve as a Model Program in Chinese instruction.  Currently the West Orange School district has 200 students enrolled in all levels of Chinese Language and Culture from year one through AP.   Asia Society and Hanban have facilitated exchange opportunities with the Hangzhou School through the Partner School Program. 

The delegation of eight students and two teachers from China are visiting classes at West Orange High School, touring Princeton University, Washington DC, and New York City and staying with the families of high school students of the Chinese program. Every other year West Orange students from the Chinese Language program visit the Hangzhou Foreign Language School staying with host families and touring parts of their country. Hangzhou is a city about 105 miles south west of Shanghai. In addition, a group of West Orange High School students participated in a Hanban summer camp in 2012.

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Supervisor of World Languages Laura Arredondo welcomed the students and visitors, and thanked Ms. Yajing Li and Ms. Yun Abernathy, Chinese teachers and Chinese Culture Club advisors, who organized the activities for the week with the support of a number of district personnel.

West Orange High School Principal Hayden Moore also welcomed the students to West Orange High School, and spoke of the diversity and cohesive community to be found within the school. “We have many countries represented in West Orange High School,” said Principal Moore. “We all get along and work together as one community. Welcome to West Orange High School. I hope you are enjoying your visit, our American food, our television, and all of this snow.”

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Mayor Parisi attended the breakfast, and also welcomed the students especially praising the families who generously opened their homes to the visiting students and teachers. The students from Hangzhou and West Orange were unfazed by the extraordinary weather that played havoc with their tour schedule. The Chinese visitors enjoyed the time-honored ritual of school snow days with their host families, baking cookies and sledding on Flood Hill.

“We have some snow were we live,” said Hangzhou English Language teacher Ms. Yu Xiao. “Only once in recent memory have we seen significant snow, that was last year and we were unprepared since we have no snow removal equipment in our city. Very much like what happened in the south of your country this week.”

Athletic Director Ron Bligh provided the visitors with souvenirs from West Orange High School including a variety of t-shirts and autographed baseballs. Also in attendance from the district were, Dr. Donna Rando, Assistant Superintendent; Ms. Ana Marti, Elementary Assistant Principal and Marc J. Lawrence, Supervisor of Social Studies.

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