~HISTORY OF GILROY-TAKKO STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM~
For over twenty years, many students from Gilroy High School traveled to Gilroy's sister city, Takko-Machi, Japan, with the Gilroy High School Chamber Singers under the direction of Phil Robb. These choir trips took place in 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2007 and ended with an amazing celebratory Alumni Choir trip in 2008. These many choir tri
ps were instrumental in strengthening the Gilroy-Takko friendship bond and creating a remarkable tradition of student exchanges between Gilroy and Takko-Machi. Many students greatly benefited from those choir exchange opportunities and many have remained active friends with the community of Takko-Machi. When Gilroy opened Christopher High School, several interested parties saw the need and the opportunity to expand these student trips to Takko-Machi. In 2009, the Gilroy-Takko Student Exchange Program (GTSEP) was formed through the collaboration of Phil & Pam Robb and Patrick Foley, the Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) in Takko-Machi, Japan from 2008-2010. The focus of the Gilroy-Takko Student Exchange Program is to continue to educate the youth of Gilroy about their sister city in Japan and the different cultures within their world. To accomplish this, the goal of GTSEP is to expand the travel opportunities to Takko-Machi, Japan to any interested and qualified high school sophomore or junior student in the Gilroy Unified School District. The first GTSEP exchange trip allowed five girls from Gilroy High School to travel to Takko in June 2010. In June 2011, six students had the opportunity to travel to Takko-Machi and during the 2011-2012 school year, GTSEP sponsored and prepared ten students for the June 2012 trip. Over the past years these students have been outstanding representatives of Gilroy High School, Christopher High School, Gilroy Early College Academy (GECA) and the Community of Gilroy. We are thankful and extremely pleased with the school and community support that we have experienced over the years.
