Now that I got your attention with this title, this is only an interview of my sister.
When I asked her to be interviewed, she was in her tidy bedroom reading The House Of Spirits and while the TV was on you could hear the The Simpsons in the background. She is a great student, who dedicates a lot of time to studying in the living room and nobody dares bother her because it would be the last thing this person would do. She is so focused when she’s working.
My sister is Alejandra Victoria Delaporte. She graduated in 2004 and after school she began her major in Law School. She is interested in social work and wants to become a diplomat, but she is now studying to become an attorney. She has two brothers Patricio and me, Philippe, Sara is her mother and Patricio her father.
She told me that at CSP she met some people that today are still her friends. People call her Pupe (this means doll in French). There are a lot of people that don’t know her name.
To conclude, my sister could be a bit of a controller but she is a great person that always wants to help others.
Everybody knows him at school. His closeness to students and friendly attitude often make us forget he’s a class assistant and not just another boy in the group. As we enter his office, he’s focused on lots of students’ report cards, filling in grades, as the sun starts going down on a Tuesday afternoon. After checking his watch, he stands up to reach for the bell. He notices me; he knows we’ve come to interview him. Gustavo Capello '99 smiles at us as we sit down. “So, Gus, I promise this will be short, as I realize how much work you have to do” “Oh, these? Not a problem, they’re due Friday. There’s time”.
When we asked about his life as a HS student, his eyes went melancholic, remembering past days. “I graduated in 1999; it seems yesterday when I was walking home after graduation ceremony, but this happened ten years ago. Time goes by really fast!” After his good times at high school, he told us, he wasn’t certain of what to do next, but after much deliberation, he decided to go to Law School. Now he’s only four subjects away from the diploma (Good for you, Gus!). “But still, High School years are the best in life; enjoy the ride while you can.” His smile widened even more, and he started laughing. While we were wondering what the cause of this laughter was, Gus, still giggling, managed to answer the question. “I’m sorry… I just remembered an anecdote from my time here! When I turned fourteen, my classmates cut my hair here at school. Although everyone got sanctions (those who cut my hair, me for letting them, and everyone around for not doing anything about it) we had a great time. It was some mischief to remember. But the funniest story was when my classmates and I organized a party at the Primary School so they called a dancer to entertain the crowd but when this man started dancing, everyone realized he was a stripper!!” he laughed.
“English from school was very important and helps me in my everyday life” he also added. He could travel to many different countries and meet new people by speaking this universal language. “Thanks to the English I learned at school nowadays I can watch movies with no subtitles because I really understand what they are saying”.
“Oh look at the time! I had to ring the bell two minutes ago. This has been a long break. (He reaches for the bell, and this talk comes to an end) See you around guys; you have to go to class now.”
As we left the office, we looked behind. How many Law students who are about to get their diplomas do you know? Perhaps many. Now, how many of these you know, that in addition are always smiling and in a good mood? In our case, only one: Gus. To the school, he’s just a good class assistant. For us, the students, he’s a friend.
He agreed to be interviewed in English over the phone and was willing to tell us more about his life out of school. Guillermo, now 18, has a very interesting life and with a cheerful laugh he agrees to answer my questions.
Guillermo Fuensalida Ramos ’08 took the IB diploma which makes his studies of Law at UNT easier, where he’s still in his first year. He is a full time student who cares about his family and who usually finds the fun part of life easier than others.
In his free time he reads books, especially the classics -at the moment he’s reading Madame Bovary written by one of his favorite authors Gustav Flaubert-, but he doesn’t watch too much TV because of his studies. Whenever he can, he hangs out at Villeco and goes to the movies with Solana, his girlfriend. He likes to have fun with his friends at home or parties. He also drives so he has an independent life and it’s easier for him to get around.
Of his time at CSP he will never forget sitting for the International Baccalaureate exam and being surrounded by friends and classmates every day. In fact, he remembers when his class decided to present a teacher’s parody in which they all had to dress up as each character and act some specific quality that their teachers had.
It is clear that Guillermo loves acting and likes to share his good sense of humor with friends. We will never forget his performance as a singer, up on the stage, when he acted in High School Musical with other students and also when he sang, ‘What’s going on’, with a classmate for School Week in front of a cheering crowd.
Happy, cheerful, now living in Buenos Aires and enjoying her job at CCU (United Beer Companies), Maria Dolores Scotta, Class of '97, was willing to share her current life with us.
Apart from working, Dolores also likes to swim, go out a lot, listen to her favourite music of the 80s , like Madonna and songs sung in French. She graduated from San Andres University in Business Administration and now after working in important companies such as Unilever, she is working as a brand manager of Super Premium Beer brands: Ciriba, Guiness, Paulaner, Imperial and others. She is responsible for making marketing strategies, giving prices and the places where the beer is sold. She has no routine and never has a day similar to another. All the time she is having meetings with suppliers , press agents, she loves what she does.
Dolores has faced the loss of dear family members.Her dad died in a plane accident nine months after she was born and she also lost her sister when she was fourteen. Despite this, she is cheerful, always happy and optimistic. When she comes to Tucumán she enjoys her time with her mother Elizabeth, her sister Soledad and lots of cousins including me. Talking of good moments she said that she has had the best moments EVER in school. She remembers once when Av. Perón was not yet constructed, there were still sugar fields by the secondary school. She and three classmates went into it and ate sugar cane and the headmistress heard of that and gave them “amonestaciones”. She was also in the volleyball team which was a lot of fun and when they had to play tournaments it was awesome because they used to skip classes.
Originality is one of her most important parts of her personality so instead of having a dog or a cat she has a ferret called Victor Samuel Hugo Barrios. She said that ferrets are domesticable like dogs but they are more independent like cats and they love to sleep. Once he made a little bed with papers to sleep there.
Dolores has a very strong spirit and she has the ability to transmit happiness to other people. She has studied a lot and sacrificed too to get all that she has now and it’s great when you meet someone like her because she is very special and unique, maybe a model to follow.
Daniel Daziano is a shy, quiet, and responsible young man that is now 21 years old. However, he is also funny and spends a lot of time with his friends. When I arrived at his house he was in his room studying for university. He was much focused obviously. First he refused to be interviewed because I was stealing his study time, but then he proceeded kindly.
We sat in the kitchen and started to talk while drinking coke. The main theme of our talk was school. Daniel graduated in 2006. He said he had had very good moments at Saint Patrick’s School, especially in the high school. He had very friendly classmates so he really enjoyed their time together and he said he will never forget them. He gave me a piece of advice: “take advantage and enjoy high school because university is completely different”. I will take that into account.
He was a good and correct student in high school and so is he in college now. In 3rd. Polimodal he took two certificates of the International Baccalaureate Examination: English and Mathematics. He told me it is a pretty good help for my future, especially in University. Talking about College, I can say that he is studying Electronic Engineering at UNT and he is now in his third year.
At the end I asked him about the best anecdote he remembered from school. He said he had a lot, but the best was all the last year of school, especially the trip to Bariloche. It was one of the last times he was together with all of his schoolmates and he really spent the most wonderful time of his life. For him it was an awesome experience.
To conclude, I can say that Daniel is an amusing and optimistic guy that is focused on his future and his career but also on his social life. He is a good example of a balanced life in which he doesn’t disregard any aspect of his duties and obligations.
Incense smell is in the air as we enter Valentina Becker’s studio at her home. She is working on a book cover design at her computer, but accepts the interview in good spirit. As the school topic is brought up, her eyes get nostalgic and she has to think in order to remember, as if it were something that happened long ago.
Valentina graduated in 2007 when many things were changing at Saint Patrick School. To mention one, she took part of the first group of students that sat for the A2 English level of the IB. 2007 was also the year of a school musical and she says: “I really enjoyed meeting new people and having fun at Saint Patrick’s High School Musical rehearsals”.
Valentina is also a skilled writer who began working with the school blog in which she worked as chief-editor, which inspired her to create her own (http://valebecker90.blogspot.com) that has now over 20,000 hits from around the world.
Now, her life is very different, far away from what happened at school. She’ s studying Graphic Design at UNSTA and most of her time during the week is spent on designs and drawings. However, she enjoys playing softball -she plays for UNSTA’ s Varsity Team- and spending time with her family which consists of her parents Raul (51) and Claudia (46), and her brothers Germán (16) and Tomás (9).
Until we finished the intervew, she was still with that nostalgic look in her eyes, like remembering something that is long gone, and is not coming back. A life full of effort and work is awaiting in the future, and Valentina is ready to go for it.
She did great at school and at college and is now a wonderful professional and a devoted wife. How can someone be all of this? Well, Agustina Romero can.
Class of ’98, she graduated with a high grade average and studied Economics at UNT. Now she is working at Santander Rio Bank and is expecting a baby in November. When I started talking about school, she automatically smiled. She was very pleased to remember her adolescence in high school, especially the volleyball matches at break between the different grades and also remembered Ricardo Barcat’s Math classes. While she was explaining what they were like, she laughed because she remembered all the funny things done, like throwing paper balls all around the classroom.
In 1999, a year after she graduated, she started Economics at UNT and since then, up to 2003, she didn’t stop studying. Her time in college was lovely remembered because at that time she met the love of her life, who is now her husband and in a few months the father of her daughter.
At present, Agustina works at Santander Rio Bank doing administrative work but she also finds time to go to the gym or just spend time with her husband in their house in a Yerba Buena gated neighborhood. By the way she talked to me, I could see she is a magnificent woman who is worth meeting. She is the kind of woman I would like to be in the future.
She received me in her room which was bit untidy as she was feeling a little sick, but she was studying anyway. She graduated in 2007 and she is now in her second year of Medicine. She is María Fernanda Neme.
I asked her what she did right after finishing high school, and without thinking, she told me that she had started studying for the entrance examination for medicine school, which went well. She also told me that she was devoting all her time to studying, she added she would have a lot of time to work in the future.
I asked for an anecdote she remembers from her time in high school. She sat down and thought for a little time, and then smiling told me of a time, after reading the book Animal Farm with Charlie, they did a mock trial to decide if Napoleon the pig was guilty or not. Still grinning she said there were three, and she was one of them; there were the witnesses, the accused, the defense, and the jury. At the end they decided to sentence Napoleon the pig.
Remembering her time at high school, when she was not the best student, and now studying medicine, proves that Fernanda is a mature woman who thinks devoting time to studying can take you anywhere, without taking the fun times out.
As I walked into his study I noticed the silent, calm climate in which he was reading Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘El Aleph’. Nicolas Meloni Class of ‘06 is currently studying Business Administration at the UNT, is in 2º year and has 20 years. He likes playing football with friends, listening to Bob Dylan, The Doors or Led Zeppelin and has recently come back from working for two months as an assistant in a company in the US. He has a small but united family: his parents and two younger brothers. By the way, and despite the difference of age, he speaks of his brothers like two very close friends of his.
He remembers his school days at CSP as a golden time, full of adventures and anecdotes that are worth hearing. One of them was when one of his friends hid a classmate’s pencil box behind the heater. The day after this, when the heater was turned on the pencil box melted and started a fire. The students were called by Diana de Pindar, the principal of the school, and after putting sanctions to culprit, she blamed a very famous TV show presenter that has a humor program: ‘This is all Tinelli’s Fault ‘’causing the laugh of everybody in the class. He thanked me kindly for making him remind those awesome times at high school and I also did because of the time he had spent during the interview. He is now a guide to me and his experiences are worth taking into account.
Who wouldn’t miss the most fun time in life after so much mischief with your friends! High school would probably be a curse for some people, but not for Maximo Alvarez ’07. Now two years after graduating he would like to go back in time and be at school again.
Currently majoring in Business Administration at UNSTA, Maximo Alvarez is really busy and says university is really hard. He is still organizing himself, but he is always remembering his life at school and everything that happened there, one of his great anecdotes was when they didn’t go to class and the preceptores had to act as detectives to find him and his friends. Although his life has changed unbelievably he still goes out with his friends and plays rugby at Cardenales Rugby Club.Everyone calls him with different nicknames as Maso, Cheto and Machi. He also plays the guitar and likes to listen to some rock bands such as Pink Floyd and The Beatles very loud.
High school is a part of life that no one would ever forget because of the freedom, the friendly atmosphere, the little work you have and the less responsibility compared to university. Just be glad for what you have right now and don’t complain about it, because there is always something worse; as Maximo said:” enjoy this wonderful time at High School, you’ll never live something like that, i would love to go back in time to be there again”
Now he feels a lot of pressure upon him. Thanks to university he doesn’t have much free time and he only sees his friends on weekends. So was High School really bad? Ask Nicolas Padros '07 and you’ll understand why it was definitely not!
Nowadays he’s a busy guy as an industrial engineering major at UNSTA who likes to hang out with his friends and listen to Blink 182. But Travis Barker and his band don’t help much in his daily life; apart from all the work and studies he has to do, in his mind, Nicolas keeps excellent memories of his life at school and he remembers them with a big nostalgic smile on his face.
According to Nicolas, life at Saint Patrick School was awesome! His favourite subject, “Formacion Moral”; his worst subject…English, ironic right? Having so many hours of English at school, he hated it, and he still does; but he remembers all his suffering during Charlie’s lessons, the lessons he went to, because until he got caught he used to sleep behind the farthest tree just to avoid English! When Ricky comes to his mind he can’t stop laughing, “He was my favourite teacher! We had so much fun in his classes” he says, and now he’s a little worried because Ricky is retiring soon. Nicolas thinks that he deserves a huuuuuuge party.
This boy’s life has drastically changed; university is not as simple as it is thought to be. So what he most misses of school is the chance to see his friends everyday, to have fun with them and the few responsibilities and work to do. He now believes that resenting high school would probably be the worst thing to do and he advises us to enjoy this stage in life because it’s unique; there’s no better time.
Gonzalo Romero, Class of ’03, was happy and nostalgic to talk about his high school years. He remembers his Math classes with Ricardo Barcat, and some youthful mischief. But he has changed completely since then. Now he studies, works and makes the most of life.
Sitting at his desk, he left his pen on his book, to answer my questions. He told me about his family, which consists of two boys and three girls, and about his friends, too. In his free time he hangs out with them and they meet at “El Sauce”. He loves playing tennis and golf, but sometimes he goes biking or jogging in the mountains.
At school, Ricardo Barcat was his favourite teacher, and he enjoyed his classes. He was a mischievous student. Astonished, he recalls a specific one, and laugh: when he took his car from the parkinglot, and at great speed, he drove around the athletic track. ‘I am really surprised, I can’t believe I did that’
But nowadays he concentrates on his new job at Idea, a Real Estate Entrepreneurship, in which he is really happy and comfortable. He is also studying Economics at UNT. He left back the adventuruos child to become a man, who is hardworking, persevering and more mature.
As I entered her room, I found Alejandra Daziano studying hard for one of her last subjects at her UNT career: civil engineering. There, I started asking her some personal questions and about her most memorable moments at school. With no problem, she left her pen, and very relaxed she answered all of them…
Firstly, I asked her some questions about her childhood, and Alejandra told me she loved being with her group of friends, while playing with dolls. After that, she opened her wardrobe and took some of the dolls she used to play with; it was really a wonderful memory.
Alejandra has two brothers and a sister. Last month, she gave her family one of the most important news in her life: she is going to get married in March, next year. Of course she is very excited, and she thinks her life will change completely from that moment.
Of Saint Patrick’s School, Alejandra has many memories, but without a doubt she told me that the best of all of them was the last year, especially the school trip to Bariloche. “It was really wonderful” she said, and it was one of the last moments where all the class was together.
Nowadays, Alejandra is in her last year at her UNT career: civil engineering, majoring in hydraulics. But while she is studying, she has the possibility to do field work in “Hidroeléctrica de Tucuman”, where she feels really comfortable. Alejandra Daziano is a very mature and meritorious woman that knows how to manage her life, leaving behind the little girl that played with dolls.
Now the list is complete! Would you vote again please..? =) Tahnk you!!If we forgot one, leave a comment on the survey please. And if the school is making you read books we haven't, let us know too! Thank you!!
