Alongside their typical lessons, Mineola’s classrooms put on display friendships that spanned an ocean last week.
The high school welcomed 17 Portuguese students to its classrooms almost exactly a year after sending 16 of its own to Portugal’s Murtosa for an exchange in April 2024.
Many students who had traveled to Portugal last April were the same ones who opened their doors to the visiting group, who in turn had hosted the majority of the visitors last year.
Diana Magalhães, an American student who was hosting two visiting Portuguese students who had welcomed her into their home last year, smiled and laughed as she talked about how much fun the week had been.
“It’s a party every night at the dinner table. I don’t think I’ve ever talked so much in my house,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
Two Portuguese students were also hosted by Mayor Paul A. Pereira, who doubles as a geography teacher at the high school and traveled to Murtosa last year with the students.
“I see the bonds these kids are making,” said Pereira, who has carried out nearly 10 other exchange programs in his 28-year career as a teacher, about half of which have been in Portugal. “I know there will be tears shed on their last day. These kids are making memories that will last a lifetime.”
Pereira, who is Portuguese himself, is one of almost half of Long Island’s more than 5,000 Portuguese residents who call Mineola home. However, he said, many of the kids who are hosting exchange students are not Portuguese and don’t necessarily have a connection to Portugal.
“From the first time I did one of these in 1997, the motivation was to knock down barriers, misconceptions, and stereotypes,” he said. “We’ve done that.”
But, for students who do have a connection to Portugal, the exchange has been meaningful in a different way.
“My parents are from Portugal, and I never really got to see where they’re from,” said Magalhães, who is Portuguese, of her time in Murtosa last year. “I was able to explore and really learn about my culture.”
When in Portugal, visiting teacher Ana Vieira said the Mineola students took classes, hung out with their host families, saw Lisbon, Aveiro and Oporto, walked through notable architecture and landmarks, went to nearby beaches, rode a traditional moliceiro boat across a lagoon and took part in Portugal’s Freedom Day celebration.
While the Portuguese students were in Mineola, Pereira led the group on excursions in Manhattan, including a walk on the High Line, through Grand Central, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Newark and around the village, including to a Mineola Board of Trustees meeting where all students were recognized and given a pin with Mineola’s village flag and Portugal’s national one conjoined.
Alongside exploring a different culture, students said they were also exposed to different learning styles and types of schooling offered in both countries. Portuguese students said their courses were more theoretical, and American students said theirs were more practical.
What they seemed to take away most, though, was the value of these cross-continental friendships they had formed. Many exchange students on both sides of the Atlantic said they had kept in touch over their year apart and plan to continue to do so.
“We FaceTime once a month, and we talk, we fill each other in on everything,” Magalhães said. “Honestly, they’re some of my best friends. I love them to death.”
“It was all really nice,” said Vasco Leite, a Portuguese student. “But the thing I loved the most was hanging out with the friends I made last year. I missed them a lot.”
