Twelve students from Lima, Peru's Markham College journeyed to Colorado's Front Range, bringing Fountain Valley School once again a global lens into the classroom — and reminding us why the American West is one of the most distinctive classrooms on Earth.

They stepped onto campus and found themselves standing on a sweeping ranch that looked nothing like the urban school they called home — Markham College set in the heart of one of South America's most vibrant capital cities. For eight days, Fountain Valley's open skies, mountain campus, and tight-knit community became the living classroom. And what Markham students found here surprised them — in the best possible way.

Massimiliano C., one of the visiting students from Lima, admitted that much of what he knew about American high school life came from movies. "I was really eager to get to know how it was in reality," he said. What he discovered at Fountain Valley was something more nuanced — and more appealing — than any Hollywood script.

The small class sizes caught Samuel M. off guard. He noted that some classes at FVS held as few as seven students, compared to the twenty-plus he was used to at home. The intimacy felt remarkable to him, and the connection that intimacy produced was something he hadn't anticipated.

Samuel came on the exchange specifically to challenge his own perspective. "I wanted to have a more global vision — not just living inside our bubble in Peru, but also getting a better understanding of places around the world," he said. What struck him most wasn't a single activity, but an atmosphere: a campus where students arrive from different cultures and different backgrounds and find themselves "all connected in one place."

For Camila S., it was the landscape itself that left the deepest impression. Having visited New York City and Miami, she was no stranger to the United States, but nothing had prepared her for the FVS Prairie. It was a kind of disconnection she hadn't known she needed. "I'm very used to being in the city. So this is like disconnecting me from all of that — and I like it," she said. She was equally struck by the warmth of the community: "I love how friendly they are here. If you say hi to someone, they will always say hi to you — and with a big smile on their face."

From the Front Range to the Rockies

No visit to Fountain Valley would be complete without the Mountain Campus, and the Markham group made the journey to Salida for two days on the Colorado Trail. They hiked, soaked in natural hot springs, and gathered around a campfire. It was, by unanimous agreement, one of the highlights of the trip. The week also took them to the Cog Railway and the ancient red sandstone formations of Garden of the Gods.

The Party Traveled from Lima

Perhaps no moment captured the spirit of cultural exchange more vividly than Prom. The Markham students arrived and, by all accounts, transformed it. Massimiliano laughed, recalling the difference in how the two student bodies approached a dance floor. Camila put it simply: "In Peru, you always dance. You're always dancing." The Peruvians, it was universally agreed, brought the party — and the FVS community was better for it.

April C., an FVS sophomore who had visited Markham College during her Interim trip, had been eagerly awaiting this moment of reciprocity. She had stayed with Camila and her family during that trip, and now it was Camila's turn to experience FVS firsthand. April remembered her own surprise upon arriving in Peru: Markham's campus sits in the middle of a bustling city, an entirely different relationship with the urban environment than anything she'd known at FVS. "Your school is in the city!" she recalled thinking — and finding it thrilling.

When asked what these exchanges actually mean, April didn't hesitate. Most Americans, she noted, think of Peru as Machu Picchu — not Lima. That gap between assumption and reality is exactly what Round Square exists to close.

Colorado's Place in a Global Conversation

Round Square is built on the idea that character is shaped by experience. Spanning more than 280 schools in 50 countries, it is one of the world's leading networks for global character education, and Fountain Valley is the only school in Colorado (and one of just a few in the American West) participating in it. The Markham College visit was one of several Round Square exchanges FVS hosted this year alone.

As this experience revealed, some things can't be Googled. They have to be lived. What happened during eight days in April — across a mountain trail, a dance floor, a hot spring, a classroom of seven — is the kind of thing that takes years to fully understand. That is the nature of the best exchanges: they don't conclude when the plane takes off. They keep unfolding, long after the Colorado plains have disappeared from view.