Page 132 - Carrollton 2019

AnaSofia Guerrero helped pioneer Carrollton s Taiwan exchange program
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief Lili Houlihan interviewed AnaSofia Guerrero' 19 about her Mandarin career at Carrollton.

Lili: How did all this begin?

AnaSofia: When I was in 6th grade, Mrs. Styrsky, our religion teacher told us about this cool opportunity called the exchange
program that Carrollton and all of the Sacred Heart schools have so I went online to see if they had anything in China. They
didn't but they did have something in this little country right next to it that I had never heard of. I clicked on it and it said Taiwan
and I was thinking... what language do they speak there? Mandarin? Awesome. So I asked my mom iff could go and she said no
for 6th grade but yes in 7th grade. I went and I loved it so I went back in 8th grade and then I went back in 9th and 10th grade
and all of those exchanges were awesome.
AnaSofia: How have you helped grow the Mandarin program at Carrollton?

AnaSofia: I feel like I really helped open the exchange program overall because I was the first girl in my grade to do this which
created awareness. People started to call me the "Exchange Girl" and began asking me about the program.

Lili: Would you suggest others to take Mandarin? Why?

AnaSofia: I would definitely suggest others to take Mandarin. I would
suggest it to people who are dedicated and don't give up because
it's a challenging language that will make you stay up late but it's worth it in the long run. I think, this
may sound silly and I feel like this happens with every language or class, but at Carrollton, you form a
really strong bond with your Chinese classmates because you're all going through something really
rough and you have to help each other or else you are not going to do as well.

Lili: What are a couple of points of advice that you would give to others who are currently learning
Mandarin?

AnaSofia: Don't give up. Get some sleep. Your grade does not reflect how well you speak Mandarin.

Lili: Have you learned anything about yourself when learning to speak Mandarin? If so, what?

AnaSofia: Definitely growing up, I didn't think much of Mandarin but now that I'm going to graduate,
looking back at my high school 'movie' and overall journey, I think taking Chinese has really changed
me as a person because of because of the people I have met, the experiences I had and the respect,
love, and understanding I have for the culture. To this date, I have great friends in Taiwan, friendships
for a lifetime.

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