Southridge opens doors to Ugandan delegates

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Apr 23, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jaime Valdez / The Beaverton Valley Times

MAKING FRIENDS — Southridge students Alec Cartwright, Kelly Hurst and Chelsea Pfeifer visit with Ugandan Robert Kasumba,15.

Southridge High School welcomed a long-awaited Ugandan delegation this week from its sister school in Matale.

With money raised by the Skyhawk student body during a recent 30-hour Famine, the Beaverton school was able to sponsor the visit of Father Joseph Kato and four students from the Matale St. Andrew’s Secondary School.

“I’m just really excited about this visit,” said Southridge Principal Amy Gordon. “It’s been five years since we started our relationship with them.

“To have them finally here – that brings it all together for our students.”

In the past few years, Southridge students have stepped up efforts to support their peers at St. Andrew’s, from helping to build a science lab to establishing a sponsorship program to allow good students – orphaned because of AIDS and committed to abstinence – to apply for scholarships to cover the costs of attending high school for an entire year.

Three teachers and eight Southridge students have also traveled to the Ugandan school to learn more about the culture and to perform projects around the school.

“Our students and teachers were greeted with kindness and hospitality,” said Jeremiah Hubbard, a social studies teacher who works with Southridge’s Sister School Club. “We will do our best to offer them the same welcome.”

Chelsea Pfeifer, a junior who traveled to Uganda last summer, participated in a welcome ceremony Monday morning for Kato and students Ritah Nabukenya, Specioza Naliggo and Robert Kasumba. The fourth student, Denis Kaginu, had not yet arrived.

She couldn’t help being reminded of the excitement she felt when she was in their shoes, exploring a new land.

“It was incredible,” Pfeifer said of her summer exchange. “I’m really glad I got the chance to experience something so different.

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