Exonians Travel Across The Globe

Scottish country dancing. Meeting “Dr. Who” David Tennant. Watching a soccer game with 80,000 Germans in the country's largest stadium and skiing the slopes of Austria. Shoveling manure on a farm in Ireland. Living in the open and airy hostels of Ghana and studying the African slave trade. These are just a few of the activities Exonians have pursued as part of study abroad programs this past year. 

“My term abroad had a significant effect on my life for the better,” senior David Kiger, who traveled to Germany during his winter, said. “The trip’s focus was on the pure enjoyment of life, something that the environment at Exeter can often inhibit.”

Senior Lloyd Feng described his choice to apply for the Stratford Program as one of the best he has ever made. “It is important for the school to expose students to the global community in which its students live… the world is full of such wonderful, magnificent cultures that students should definitely explore,” he said.

The Academy’s Stratford program is offered the fall term of each school year. This year, eleven Exonians, along with the family of English instructor Brooks Moriarty, journeyed to England. The students partook in a variety of activities each week—spending some days exploring country houses and stately homes, such as Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court Palace, and others visiting London independently.

Feng, who initially applied to the Stratford program out of interest in English theater, felt that the trip was a memorable experience.

“Before I came to Exeter, I was exposed to a great deal of the theatergoing scene in New York. I watched a musical, opera, or play a few times each month,” he said. “I missed that aspect of living in New York and wanted to get back to that experience of theatergoing. I saw the Stratford Program as my ticket to theater and the arts.”

During the winter, as a part of another study abroad program, four students from the Academy travelled alone to Germany and stayed with German host families in Göttingen. Senior David Kiger, one of the students that went on this trip, mentioned the benefits of having a relatively short school day.

“This provided us with valuable time in the afternoons to explore our the city we lived in, Göttingen,” he said. “I can vividly remember exploring the city streets and wandering into various meatshops, bakeries and cafes throughout the dense pedestrian zone. The city itself was fairly large, but also very centralized and accessible by foot or bus.”

The students got a chance to see historical landmarks like Hannover and Berlin, among others, while guided by their host families. Kiger felt that the presence of the host families helped the students understand the sites, as they heard the perspective of a person actually living in the Germany.

Kiger made many friends from this experience and spent more time with them later on. “It was through the bonding on the ski trip that I made my closest  German friends, with whom I spent time with on future weekends fully embracing the German nightlife scene in the city,” he said.

Upon reflection, Kiger felt that the trip to Germany allowed him to both experience a new culture and also learn some life lessons.

“I learned to grow up, take risks and adopt a new take on life through immersion in the European culture,” he said. “I would strongly recommend this program or any term abroad program to anyone, because the lessons, learning and truly enjoyable experiences one will have outside the traditional classroom are simply amazing.”

In the fall, some students from Exeter joined other high school students in Cape Eleuthera, Bahamas, for their time at the Island School, a sustainable school where students study biology and the environment. Each student also prepares for a four mile ocean swim, or a 13 mile half marathon.

On a typical morning, upper Haeyeon Jang said that she would wake up at 6:30, and students would split to their “tracks,” where they would either swim or run. After training, students would take approximately four hours of classes, and then spend time researching with study advisors, typically scientists and interns.

“The teachers were very casual and friendly,” she said. “It was easy to approach them, sometimes easier than your peers. They mainly draw from prep schools, so lots of people knew each other from before. It was generally a really positive, tight group.”

Along with the trip to Germany in the winter, a trip to Ireland was also offered, where the selected students would travel to Ireland and work at two Camphill communities, Camphill Callan and Camphill Ballytobin. Established in 1979, the Camphill communities was designed to assist individual with special needs in living in a home, as well as leading a fulfilling life.

At the communities, basically all aspects of life are shared. There is a farm and a garden where everybody spends their time harvesting food. Most individuals live in one of three houses, and there is an arts center called KCAT where various art classes are taught.

Senior Sam Blank, one of the Exonians who travelled to Ireland, described his time doing manual labor on the farm. “I never thought I would enjoy the muddy work on a farm like shoveling manure, but let me tell you, the smell grows on you. I kind of miss it,” he said.

Not all of the time at Ireland was spent at the Camphill communities. Blank also had a chance to explore other areas in Ireland, “getting to see everything from Dublin, which is practically an American city with funny accents and tiny roads, to Dingle, a tiny port town with live music in every restaurant almost every night, to Cork, where one in thirty people works for Apple Corporate.”

Finding the experience “life-changing,” Blank recommends the program to interested students.

“If the idea of a self-sustaining slightly Marxist farming community designed to aid and learn from people with special needs sounds even remotely interesting to you, I can say without a doubt that you will absolutely love Camphill Callan, and there is no reason for you not to apply.”

Another winter term trip, this one to Ecuador, allowed the selected students to live in the city and surrounding area of Cuenca, Ecuador, staying with a host family. Senior Carlyn Dougherty, who went on the trip, stayed with a host family with four of their children, and spent most of her time living with them.

Meant for Spanish language students at the Academy, a language barrier was present, as both a native speaker and a strong Spanish student still had a large disparity in terms of vocabulary. Dougherty, who describes herself as “a very verbose person” in English, felt that having a roughly 300 word vocabulary was particularly difficult in communicating with the host families.

However, Dougherty noted that the learning process was very quick for her. n“It was a very fast learning process for me linguistically, but there was also a presence of English, on signs and in shops.”

Dougherty reminded applicants to be aware of some changes they may have to make to their lifestyle. “They weren’t huge things, but anyone that goes abroad should be open to small things,” she said.

Apart from Cuenca, the students also visited other parts of the country, including the renowned Galapagos Islands. Finding the trip to Ecuador to be a valuable experience, Dougherty recommended that more people take advantage of the unique opportunities that Exeter offers.

“I think going abroad is one of the best things you can do for yourself. There aren’t many other schools if any, with this many opportunities, so it’s silly not to take advantage of them,” she said.

As the students came back from these trips, many of them felt that they had established a new home during their time away from the Academy, and missed the enjoyable activities that they experienced.

Kiger, who made many friends during his trip to Germany, learned so much about the German culture that returning home was a jolting experience.

“The friends in Germany that I made were able to make me feel welcome in the new land and helped me to fully embrace the German culture. By the end of the term, I found it difficult to return home, perhaps because Germany became my new home,” he said.

Blank, who felt that his trip to Ireland truly changed his life, said the programs “aren’t just ways to avoid being in New Hampshire in the winter of your senior year, they are ways to completely change your outlook on practically everything.”