If you are passionate about traveling, stepping outside your comfort zone, and exploring different cultures, look no further! The Wilcox Santa Clara Sister Cities Club (SCSCA) promotes cultural awareness by giving students the opportunity to forge connections with other students worldwide. Wilcox’s SCSCA is just one branch of the organization – it also has a student club at Santa Clara High School, with membership opportunities for families and other individuals throughout the city.
Santa Clara Sister Cities was founded by the City of Santa Clara in 1972 as part of the wider Sister Cities International, which was launched 16 years prior. SCSCA’s first sister city was established in Coimbra, Portugal, followed by its second sister city in Izumo, Japan in 1986, and its newest sister city in Limerick, Ireland in 2014. SCSCA continues to expand as it has established a “friendship city” status with Incheon City, South Korea, meaning that it will eventually become a sister city. The club also hopes to create a sister city in Indonesia, which will not likely be complete for a couple of years.
SCSCA hosts many events throughout the school year, such as monthly meetings with Santa Clara High School and Cupertino High School, fundraisers at Central Park, and volunteering at the Santa Clara Parade of Champions. The biggest SCSCA event is their annual trip to one of their sister cities – their most recent and first post-pandemic trip was to Izumo. For 10 days, students visited a multitude of locations, such as temples, landmarks, a local high school, and more. Students spent time with their host families by going out to eat and having karaoke nights with them. Similar trips took place prior to the establishment of the club at Wilcox in 2020, with a trip to Limerick in 2018 and Coimbra in 2019. These sister city trips are a unique opportunity for students to see the cultural differences between the United States and their sister cities firsthand. SCSCA also plans on hosting Japanese students in early 2024.
Students keep in touch with their sister cities by writing pen pal letters and sending them American candy. This allows students unable to attend the annual trips to learn more about their sister cities’ cultures and build friendships from home.
At Wilcox, SCSCA has approximately 15 active members and is led by 5 officers – President Brianna Ortega, Vice President Maryam Radwan, Secretary Michelle Wu, Outreach Director Miyu Kudo, and Treasurer Hillary Lee. “I initially joined Sister Cities because I was interested in traveling outside of the country,” states Maryam Radwan. Reflecting the diverse benefits of joining Wilcox’s SCSCA, Radwan continued “This club also relates to how I want to study abroad in college and it was a great first stepping stone into the endless possibilities of traveling in the future.”
Radwan also emphasizes the significance of SCSCA: “It is important to build connections with students from other countries in order to gain a broader understanding of the world and of people who live vastly different lives from us.” She continues, “Forging bonds with people from beyond America allows one to break through [cultural detachment] from other countries and recognize our similarities.” Club president Brianna Ortega adds, “The club gives [students] the unique opportunity to engage with students on the other side of the world.”
Interested Wilcox students can get involved in SCSCA at any time. “Students can get informed about the Sister Cities club on our Instagram @wilcox.sister.cities,” Brianna states. “We also send emails and have monthly youth meetings at Headen-Inman House in Santa Clara where members can get more updates about the club.” Join SCSCA for the opportunity to build connections with students from Wilcox and around the world!
