AMHERST - Students spent almost three weeks in Brazil for International Leadership Camp.
The school board chose 20 grade 11 students for their leadership abilities. Students had to write a one page essay about how it would benefit them and what they would do while they were there.
"We like to see how they turn around and use the skills," Coordinator of International Student Programming for the school board Lisa Hartery said.
The students left on March 8 and returned March 24. They brought computers, books, school supplies, toys, toiletries, sports equipment and more with them to Brazil.
"The kids were so happy to see everything we had brought them," Amherst Regional High School student Sarah Hiller said.
The students lived with Brazilian students and attended school Monday to Friday while they were in Brazil. The students learn Portuguese and the Brazilian students learned English.
Some of the Brazilian's the students lived with went to a private school and had servants, chauffeurs and some had bodyguards.
"They seen how it all really goes down," Hartery said.
The students gathered donations and worked on building a library and an orphanage in Brazil.
The students split into four groups to entertain children with activities such as learning to make friendship bracelets, tie-dyeing T-shirts, decorating T-shirts and having an Easter egg hunt.
"The entire group became very close friends," Amherst Regional High School student Emily Matthews said. "Everyone we went down there with and met there were amazing."
While in Brazil the students went to a Brazilian football game and watched people set fireworks on the football field. The students also went for a walk through the desert and were able to swim in the lagoon.
"All you could see was pure white sand and pools of water," Matthews said.
Each student who attended received a $2500 scholarship for being apart of the leadership program.
As a result of the leadership camp to Brazil, the Nova Scotia International Student Program has offered a scholarship for a Brazilian student to come here for a semester of school and for a student from here to study in Brazil for a semester.
While the students were there they wrote on a blog everyday so that family members and others could read about what the students were doing each day.
The blog can be read at www.blogs.ccrsb.ednet.ns.ca.
"It was amazing, there's no other way to describe it," Matthews said.