SYA High School Study Abroad Program in France

The 2014-2015 curriculum will include new courses in Political Science and Economics, as well as Physical Science: Environmental Science in China (AP), France and Spain and Archaeology in Italy. The curriculum will place a greater emphasis on global issues, while maintaining at its core the cultural and linguistic immersion experience. The skills and knowledge that students develop through immersion—an ability to adapt to different cultures and communicate across boundaries—lie at the foundation of any education for today's global world.

As our world becomes more interdependent and interconnected, studying abroad in high school will become more and more important because it exposes students to the wider world earlier and gives them a significant leg up in college. International education in the next ten years will be much more collaborative between schools, using the internet as a vehicle for communication, while also placing greater emphasis on in person interactions which no computer screen can replace. SYA’s summer schools already have online collaboration between students at our different schools.

Some argue that it’s less important these days to learn another language because so many people speak English. I couldn’t disagree more. When you learn another language you open yourself up to a much fuller version of communication with others and it changes the way you think about your own language and language in general. It is an enormous gift and worth the hard work of the will to achieve fluency.