Ferriday — A group of Concordia Parish students are asking Miss-Lou residents to run or walk the streets of Ferriday Saturday to help raise money for a language-learning trip to Costa Rica.

Students from Ferriday and Vidalia high schools are hosting a 5K walk/run at 10 a.m. Saturday in Ferriday as a fundraiser for the trip and to raise awareness about community health.

The students created a club called Conexiones, which means connections in Spanish, to help raise money for the May trip to Costa Rica.

Ferriday High School Spanish teacher and trip sponsor Jennifer Jeffers said the club is the first cross-parish effort of its kind and the first international trip through the school district.

“As much as you study in class, the only way to have the language cement for you is to spend time in a foreign country speaking that language,” Jeffers said. “I think it’s a really important experience for students to have, especially since some of our students come from backgrounds of limited opportunity. Being able to take this trip will really be beneficial for all of them.”

Jeffers said she and Vidalia High School Spanish teacher Sydney Spain, the other trip sponsor, have made an agreement with the students to try and not speak any English on the 10-day trip.

“Just having the experience to travel is great, but to have that really uniquely, uncomfortable feeling of being in a culture that’s completely not your own and having to navigate through it in a different language is a powerful learning experience,” Jeffers said. “It’s going to force them to think deep into what they’ve learned, and I’m excited for them that they’ll be actually forced to do that.”

VHS senior Garrett Hinson, one of the 13 students making the trip, said traveling to a Spanish-speaking country will allow him to get more practice speaking with native Spanish speakers outside of the Miss-Lou’s Mexican restaurants.

“We’ve got quite a few around here, so I always try to talk with the waiters when I go, but it usually winds up them laughing at me or speaking back to me way too fast,” Hinson said, laughing. “I think this will be a great opportunity to show what we’ve learned.”

The trip will also allow Hinson to experience a culture he’s only read about in the classroom.

“One of the things we talked about in class this year was becoming global citizens,” Hinson said. “We need to have an understanding of every different culture so we can relate to them.”

Since November, the group of students have organized fundraising events to raise money for the trip, which included selling snacks at lunch time to hosting hip-hop dance classes.

The students have raised $12,000 of their $15,000 goal, which will help cover the majority of the trip expenses for each student.

While in Costa Rica, the students will see various landmarks, tour a coffee plantation, but most importantly, Jeffers said, have a chance to interact with ordinary Spanish-speaking people.

“A really good indicator that you’re proficient in a language is your ability to find a way around a conversation with someone else, and it’s difficult to simulate that here,” Jeffers said.

“So I’m very excited of the language skills I hope they acquire.”

Registration for the 5K is $10 per person and can be completed at each of the high schools or by visiting facebook.com/Conexiones.ConcordiaParish.

The 5K will begin at Ferriday High School at 10 a.m. Saturday.