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Patty Stephenson
As Saugus High School is the only high school in the Santa Clarita Valley to offer the language of Chinese, it also is the only to offer its students the opportunity to travel to China each summer to learn of their language and culture.
“We began offering Chinese Mandarin when we started our exchange program in 2005,” states Stephenson, the Saugus High School veteran of 25 years. “I tried to start an exchange program with France and never could get it off the ground. Though, realistically most schools should be teaching Chinese right now. They are currently our number one trading partner, we do so much business with them…we should be teaching it.”
So how did this all start?
“Five years ago our former superintendent, Bob Lee, went to China as part of a tour to see their educational system,” explains Stephenson. “He was impressed with one school at “XI’an” in Central Western China. He liked it so much he came back and talked to (SHS Principal) Bill Bolde about looking into establishing an exchange program with this particular high school in China. We did most of the work and eventually got it going. XI’an had an existing exchange program with a school in Brookline, Massachusetts…Bill Bolde and I traveled to Massachusetts to check it out and we loved it.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
“They provide five students and a teacher in the fall semester each year and they live with Saugus families,” says Stephenson. “The following summer we can take up to 10 students and two teachers to live and study in China. It is a rather unique program. It is a school-to-school sister program.”
Saugus staff and families facilitate learning on and off campus for the Chinese students. “While they are here we have monthly host parent meetings to plan activities,” she says. “Disneyland, Sacramento, Yosemite, San Francisco, The Getty, different things. When we go to XI’an they organize trips for us and go different places, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City; the difference is they are a private school and we are a public school that has to raise all its own funds.”
And how can the school possibly raise enough funds to allow these students such an adventure?
“We have raffles, a night at BJ’s, companies will contribute…anything we can do to raise money, we do it. Whatever you can dream of, we do,” she explains.
Stephenson’s role is impressive in that she volunteers all her time for the program…yet she still has a “day job” – teaching French full-time at Saugus.
“I acknowledge part of the problem is having the time to organize all of this…I am a full time teacher as well,” she says. “One year the district gave us $1,500, though currently that is not happening, which is totally understandable given the economy. We get a lot of personal contributions. Anything you can dream of, we do to raise money. We want the program to be available to all students.”
The cost to the student is $2,500, though no one is making any money on this. If a child cannot afford all of it they find personal donors. “We do what we have to do to make it happen,” explains Stephenson. “This has taken a good portion of my life for the past six years -- though it is SO important. International Education helps us understand that people are people everywhere. We have to get past the negative views and stereotypes of others. The Chinese are beautiful people. It is a special culture.”
And if the Chinese are a special culture, the Stephenson clan is a special one as well. Her son Marc teaches science and coaches basketball at Saugus. Her husband Jenk retired after 30 years with Saugus. And her 89-year-old mother volunteered her time for Saugus last year. “We had three generations of Stephensons at Saugus at once,” touts the proud Centurion matriarch.
Stephenson has been promoting the program long enough to see its results. “This program is a success in that we see the kids that have gone through and how they fare in education,” she says. “More than half continue in the study of Chinese while one of our students actually now lives in China…this is having a profound effect on these kids’ lives. The oldest group we have taken has now graduated from college…these are very successful students.”
It sounds like many of those in Patty Stephenson’s presence are infected with a passion for language and culture. And both the students of Saugus and XI’an stand to benefit.
For detailed accounts of their journey to China, check out: http://saugus-gaoxin-exchange.blogspot.com/
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