This summer, Gulliver students Sophia Valeri Bermudez ‘28 and Emilio Mora ‘28 took their learning thousands of miles beyond Miami, representing their city in Kagoshima, Japan, through the Miami–Kagoshima Student Exchange Program.
As youth ambassadors for the City of Miami, Sophia and Emilio joined an immersive cultural exchange designed to strengthen the longstanding sister-city relationship between Miami and Kagoshima. Living with Japanese host families and attending local schools, they experienced daily life in Kagoshima while building friendships and learning to navigate a culture and language different from their own.
The experience called on them to do more than simply visit another country. In conversations with host families, students, educators, community members, and local leaders, Sophia and Emilio shared what it means to grow up in Miami while approaching each new experience with curiosity and respect.
Their role also brought them to Kagoshima City Hall for a courtesy visit with the Mayor of Kagoshima, where they formally represented Miami and experienced firsthand the civic partnership connecting the two cities.
For Sophia and Emilio, stepping into an unfamiliar environment meant learning to communicate across differences, adapt to new customs, and become more independent. Those are the kinds of experiences that prepare Gulliver students to move through an increasingly interconnected world with confidence, character, and an understanding of their responsibility to others.
The exchange also reflected something deeply connected to Gulliver’s Miami identity. As a school shaped by one of the world’s most globally connected cities, Gulliver creates opportunities for students to expand their perspectives while remaining rooted in the community they call home.
Sophia and Emilio returned to Miami with new friendships, a broader view of the world, and a deeper appreciation for the role young people can play in strengthening communities. By representing their city abroad, they helped carry a decades-long friendship between Miami and Kagoshima into its next generation, showing how meaningful global connections often begin one conversation, one friendship, and one shared experience at a time.
