On Friday, Wareham High School will open its doors to some travelers from Santa Cruz, Cape Verde.

Twelve members from the Alfred Da Cruz Silva School, including eight high school students and four chaperones, will visit Wareham as part of the Global Education Team’s effort to foster relationships with partner schools around the globe.

“It’s really about the kids meeting other kids,” said Wareham High Global Education Team Leader Henry St. Julien earlier this school year. “We have ongoing systems with those schools, and an active Global Team at our high school and middle school.”

Wareham Public Schools and the Department of Education in Cape Verde began a collaboration over a decade ago. Throughout the past ten years, teachers and administrators from both nations visited each others’ schools. Students from both communities have communicated regularly through SKYPE, an online video streaming service.

In 2010, Wareham Public Schools created its own Global Education Team to provide leadership and direction to help build this and other relationships. The Global Education Team’s mission statement is to “encourage Wareham Public School’s students to be globally minded in order to prepare them for the 21st century.”

In 2013, eight Wareham students and five Wareham Public Schools staff members visited Cape Verde.

St. Julien said the experience was extremely memorable and had a powerful impact on both communities. Students were able to learn about a new culture first hand, and then presented what they learned to their peers and community.

He said the motivation for this upcoming visit by the Cape Verdean delegation is to continue this effective learning experience.

Once the guests from Cape Verde get to Wareham, they will explore the community, shadowing Wareham's students, visiting places of interest in the region, and assisting in the process of making Wareham students become “globally minded.”

In 2016, a group of Wareham students are expected to visit Cape Verde themselves.

“I think a lot of Wareham kids’ lives were changed,” said St. Julien of the 2013 trip.