What do Shimukappu, Japan and Aspen, Colorado have in common? They offer world-class skiing, spectacular mountain vistas, and have students willing to take risks, cross borders, and explore new cultures.
Four middle school students from the small mountain town in Northern Japan came to Aspen earlier this month, as did a group of 12 students from Queenstown, New Zealand, adding to a tradition of international community partnerships that started nearly 60 years ago.
Aspen Sister Cities’ mission is to “share ideas and cultures through the international exchange of students and community members.” And they have done just that.
“Some of the students are very shy when they first come over, and then when they leave their whole world has changed,” Aspen Sister Cities President Jill Sheeley said of the students’ 10-to 13-day exchange.
What started in 1966 as a partnership between Aspen and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany expanded to seven cross-cultural community relationships. Aspen now partners with Shimukappu, Japan; Queenstown, New Zealand; Chamonix, France; Bariloche, Argentina; Abetone, Italy; and Davos, Switzerland providing opportunities for students and professionals to embark on cultural exchanges.
“It’s that immersed experience that humanizes the world and makes us all feel connected as people,” said Britta Gustafson, a Snowmass Town Council representative for Sister Cities.
Visiting students get a sense of the local education by shadowing Aspen middle schoolers and high schoolers. While here they also ski with the Aspen students, participate in round tables at the Aspen Institute, and listen to presentations at the Aspen Historical Society, among other extracurricular activities, according to Sheeley. Aspen Skiing Company donates ski passes and equipment to make the on-mountain education possible.
This weekend, Aspen will welcome 13 students from Abetone followed by a group from Chamonix in February and another from Bariloche in April.
“Despite all our differences, we find those ways to recognize, all over the globe, there are people living in small ski resort communities that have something very acutely similar to our experience here,” Gustafson said.
The nonprofit also sends Aspen students abroad. Approximately 60 Aspen students visit the sister cities for a 10-to-12-day exchange, where they live with a host family, study in local school and ski at the community resorts, according to Gustafson.
Aspen eighth-graders live with host families in Abetone, Bariloche, Chamonix, and Shimukappu. Aspen High School students exchange in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Queenstown, and Chamonix, according to Sheeley. Once they return students present on the experiences abroad and the international relationships they’ve built. “They will bring tears to your eyes,” she said of the student presentations.
Apart from students, Sister Cities enable ski patrollers, medical professionals, adaptive ski instructors, and artists to spend time abroad and hone their skills.
Aspen Valley Hospital medical professionals travel to Bariloche every year to instruct and learn from medical professionals at Hospital Zonal Ramón Carrillo. The exchange began in 2002 after Argentina was struck with economic disaster and the Bariloche hospital was tasked with providing medical care for 500,000 people in the region, according to Aspen Sister Cities. Since the partnership began, the Aspen medical community has provided Ramón Carrillo with over $1 million of medical equipment.
Almost every year two Aspen ski patrollers exchange with patrollers from Bariloche and Chamonix. Adaptive ski instructors also travel to Bariloche to pass on skills to Argentinian instructors, expanding access to the sport, according to Aspen Sister Cities.
Local artists get the opportunity to exchange in Bariloche, where they conduct classes, show their artwork, and make international connections.
Sheeley said the nonprofit has been fortunate to have the continued support of Aspen mayors and city council since its inception. “It helps to build world peace,” she said of the exchanges.





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