Around the Globe with Twenty Kids

Posted on | January 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment |Globe

by Elizabeth Orenstein, Class of 2010 - 26 Jan 2009

As a student body we have been to almost as many countries as our school holds pupils. We are a school of travelers. Under the guidance of our language teachers, every student has the opportunity to a foreign country. By the time we turn eighteen we have studied at least one additional language and experienced cultures wildly different from ours. Others have been fortunate enough to live for extended periods of time in another country.

One of our sophomores, Sarita, spent the first six and a half years of her life in Colombia. She describes a magical place: “We lived in a house my parents built. The windows didn’t have any glass.” The flower gardens surrounding the house held hidden ponds and other mysteries. On the outskirts of Cali she played among ducks and geese, dogs and cats.

Eliot, a senior, spent his freshman year living in Hawai’i. He attended the Waldorf school there, where some classes were held outside. Under the Hawaiian sun he learned to surf with his friends and relax west coast style. Hawaii isn’t just coconut groves and beaches though. He recounts that his family lived just a few minutes from the city, where the second largest mall in the world hosts thousands every day.

These students might have been unique in their experiences, but every year at least one student has a three month exchange to either South America or Germany. They spend these months living daily life like every other person around them. Each returns changed, not for the better or worse, but with a mind a little bit broader than when they left.