Today, the Mayor of Skopje, Koce Trajanoski, met with 6 high school students from Skopje and 6 high school students from its Sister City of Tempe, Arizona. The meeting was also attended by Beth Fiorenza-executive director of the Tempe Community Action Agency, and Darlene Periconi, professor of mathematics in Tempe High School.

“I would like to wish you a warm welcome to our city and our country. I want you to know that you are in, undoubtedly, the oldest state in the Balkans. The City of Tempe is one of our first sister cities, and even though Tempe is the furthest one, it is the only one of our sister cities with which we have high school student exchanges. The sister city relationship between Skopje and Tempe was established at the initiative of the city Tempe, in July 1971. The signing of the sister city agreement occurred when a delegation of the City of Skopje visited Tempe on the occasion of the Annual Conference of the Sister Cities in the U.S. I’ve had the privilege of visiting Tempe in the past. From 1972 until today, every year (except for 1990 and 1991) in the summer we have successfully conducted the reciprocal exchange of high school students between our two cities. I hope that our students will be good hosts and will show you everything you need to know about our country, and from here you will leave with countless impressions and you will be our worthy promoters in America,” said Mayor Trajanovski.

The students from Tempe said that for the past three days they’ve been in Skopje, they were fascinated by the greenery, hospitality, culture and history of the City and the Republic of Macedonia, while the host students from Skopje were amazed about how quickly their peers from Tempe have adapted here and I came to love Skopje, Macedonia.

 The High school students from Skopje – Mario Alexander Mladenovski of SUGS “Orce Nikolov”, Monica Georgievska of SUGS “Pance Arsovski”; Sanja Pavlovic from SUGS “Lazar Tanev”; Laurie Bebic SUGS “Rade Jovcevski-Korchagin”; Irina Trencevska of SUGS “Georgi Dimitrov” and Sarah-Aleksova “Nikola Karev” – will for five weeks host their Tempe peers – Jacob Martin “Corona del Sol High School”; Annika Andersen-“McClintock High School”; Caitlin O’Grady-“Marcos de Niza High School”; Hannah Pfotenhauer-“Corona del Sol High School”; Kaycie Sondrup-“McClintock High School” and Laura Schumann-“Marcos de Niza High School”.

 After the meeting Mayor Trajanovski and the students from Tempe exchanged modest gifts and wished for another meeting. TSC Student Delegates departed Tempe June 11  and will return with their Macedonian brother or sister July 16.