After traveling more than 14 hours by air (4,615 nautical miles), four young men joined the Trinity student body on Jan. 30. These new Rocks arrived on campus as part of a student exchange program with the school Colegio Santa Ethnea, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The students from Argentina are Benjamin de Artiagoitia, Ignacio Caterina, Nahuel Carrizo and Alejo Garcia.

The four will stay with the families of Trinity students Liam Amick, Braden Antle, Gabriel Argotte, and Bradley Gomez-Araujo until Feb. 25.

The hosts will have an opportunity to travel to Argentina at the beginning of June this year and stay for a month.

The Trinity exchange program started in 2016 and was coordinated by Ms. Maria Martin. Mr. Jorge Serrano is now in charge of the program.

Serrano said this program benefits many Trinity students, who have a chance to interact with the students from Argentina and learn about their culture.

Serrano recommends the program to students who want to improve their understanding of Spanish and said, “It is a great opportunity because it’s an immersion program.”

Students who visit Argentina speak Spanish to the best of their abilities all day.

Amick said he heard about the program from Serrano and described it as “a really cool opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Amick said the Rocks benefit because “when the Argentinian students come here, people get to interact with them and meet them and learn more about their culture.”

Antle said the program introduces Trinity to “a new culture. It’ll give Trinity a new outlook on different parts of the world.”

Amick said he is “really excited” to get to know his exchange student and is looking forward to visiting Argentina.

He said, “I hope just by living there, I’ll get a lot better grasp of my Spanish skills. I think it will help in adapting to new situations.”

Antle said, “I think it will improve my flexibility by being in new situations. My favorite part of the program will be becoming friends with someone from a new country. It will be an interesting experience to improve my Spanish while also meeting new people.”