72 Students Study Abroad
With some of the longest-standing abroad programs offered among private schools, Exeter provides its students a variety of opportunities to travel to places ranging from Ecuador and the Bahamas to Russia and Rome. This year, the Academy ran 13 term abroad programs and two school year abroad programs, with a total of 72 students participating in all. The fall term programs were Stratford, Grenoble, Ghana, the Mountain School, the Island School, Japan and Russia. Winter term programs included Ecuador, Germany, China and Ballytobin, and the Mountain School and Washington Intern Program were offered during the spring. Sixty-six students did terms abroad, while six chose to study in either China or Spain for the entire school year through the School Year Abroad program (SYA).
The abroad programs are overseen by Eimer Page, English instructor and director of Exeter’s Global Initiatives. Though each program has its own faculty member who serves as its director, for the sake of consistency, Page manages the application process, budget setting and general handling of all the programs, in addition to working with the outside groups SYA, Mountain School and Island School. In her role, Page seeks to balance the long-term goals and big-picture vision of Exeter’s abroad programs with the smaller details. She explained that the underlying intent of the programs is to give students the opportunity to experience life outside of the Exeter bubble and immerse themselves in a new place. This immersion can be focused on language, as it is in the Ecuador and Japan programs for example, on poetry and theatre, such as in Stratford, or on outdoor leadership, through the Mountain School. “They’re all intended to help students to see a world beyond themselves and this place,” Page said.
With these goals in mind, Page works to ensure that the current programs are running smoothly and helps with the implementation of new ones. Two of her main priorities are ensuring that students who need financial aid receive it and ensuring the safety of the programs. Each year, hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial aid are distributed to students going abroad, considering both term abroad and vacation trips. According to Page, students who receive even partial financial do not pay any additional price to attend the terms abroad and their aid award is increased to cover the surcharges. Once this is taken into account, over two-thirds of travelers are supported by Exeter to some extent for their trips. Page also works to reduce the costs for full-pay families because these are often the people who struggle to afford the programs as they are already paying so much already for tuition. Page hopes to create programs that are affordable or where the tuition can be reduced for everyone.
“I feel I am more likely to thrive in diverse environments.”
In addition to financial aid, Page concentrates on the safety of abroad programs. She lists her goals as “keeping students safe” and “trying to create conditions that allow students to make the right decisions.” The Academy has implemented a new travel, medical and safety provider which helps protect the safety of students who are abroad. Furthermore, Page said that there have been no major safety issues in the past decades.
Most of the abroad programs were launched in response to student interest in a particular culture. Some, such as the fall term in Ghana, began in 2013 as part of the Academy’s expanded outreach program under former principal Tom Hassan, who felt that the list of programs should be extended to include an option in Africa. The spring Washington Intern program, on the other hand, began in 1966 after an interested student arranged his own internship and then proposed a program to the school.
This year, due to its late announcement and the lack of time, students had to plan for graduation requirements and the winter term in Rome program did not run. The program, which explores branches of classics including Latin, Greek, Roman History and archaeological study, will run next year, however. The winter terms in China and Taiwan are not anticipated to run next school year due to low enrollment.
For students interested in going abroad, application materials are made available during an informational night in early winter. According to history instructor and director of the fall term in Ghana, Kwasi Boadi, students are selected based on their personal statements, academic, attendance and discipline records and adviser and teacher recommendations. However, Japanese instructor and Director of the Fall Term in Japan Kayoko Tazawa said that she chooses applicants depending on their “citizenship.” She further explained, “the grades do not matter but their discipline and character are important because they will be the representative of PEA and the United States.”
Both the term and school years abroad serve as eye-opening experiences for their participants. French instructor and director of the Fall Term in Grenoble, Katherine Fair, recognized that in learning languages, the classroom “can never be a substitute for living overseas.” Throughout her time as director, she has witnessed that students who go to Grenoble “come away with a deeper, more mature understanding of those around them and, I think, more openness and empathy.” Likewise, Boadi observed that students generally return from Ghana with an awakened consciousness about the opportunities and challenges facing certain countries. Noting that abroad programs by their very nature are an invaluable experience for students, Boadi said, “it makes students global citizens and more cosmopolitan and compassionate in their outlook, a much needed trait in our ever shrinking global village.”
Students who went abroad this year expressed awe at how much their experiences have changed them. For senior Hiro Kuwana, his term in Taiwan helped form his decision to take a gap year. He said that his time abroad made him want to “just explore the world more and create experiences through life since at the end of the day, that’s all we have in life.” Upper Hannah MacKay felt that her term in Russia made her a more independent person. She explained that by the end of the program, “I was at the point of independence where I understood that if I don’t go to the market I’m not eating food and if I don’t wash my clothes I’m not dressing to impress and if I don’t pay the electricity and water bill—well learned that one the hard way.”
Senior Breanna Apple also recognized the independence that her term in Japan gave her. “I went from being unable to navigate from my house to PEA (10 minutes straight along the highway) to taking a three hour train/bus ride with four stops to a school I had never visited to speak at an Exeter admissions panel,” she said.
Upper Robert Zintl, who spent a term at the Island School and described it as “the best decision” he has ever made, believed that his experience has made him more in touch with his surroundings and better able to appreciate the good things in life. “I go to bed earlier, stress less and eat healthier food,” he noted. Senior Efe Airewele believed that her term in Ghana made her more “flexible.” She explained that while abroad, she was faced with such different types of people and found it “rewarding” to interact with them on an academic and personal basis. “I feel I am more likely to thrive in diverse environments,” she said.
The majority of students who travel abroad through Exeter felt that their experience provided them with something that remaining here on campus could not have. For upper Kelvin Green, who spent his school year in China, it has been “the biggest culture shock” of his life. He described the importance of understanding people by living with a family of a different culture. “SYA China was the experience of a lifetime and all the hardships I’ve gone through have led into a beautiful understanding and maturing that has made me better prepared for my future.”