In contrast to the trips abroad students can take with their language classes, another, more unique opportunity was offered recently that reversed the system and brought outside culture in to St. Paul Academy and Summit School. On the Jan. 28, eleven Chinese athletes came to SPA to learn more about American high schools. These athletes are all very accomplished and many are Olympic Medalists or former World Champions in their respective sports. Ranging from trampoline, to fencing, to wrestling they played a varied selection of sports. The athletes had a chance to tour the school and play field hockey with middle school students but one of the more impactful parts of the day was the open forum between the athletes and SPA students.

“I definitely think that people were interested in [the discussion] …. and I think that the Chinese athletes were really willing to answer the questions that we asked them and they were interested in learning about our school too,” sophomore Soph Lundberg said.

Assisted by Middle School Chinese Teacher Neil Bray, the Chinese athletes and SPA students exchanged questions comparing each other’s academic and athletic lives. Culturally these two places differ greatly in athletic structures. In China it is common for children to be selected at a young age to train for their sport intensively whereas in the United States athletics are often in conjunction with academics.

At the forum, trampolinist Lu Chunlong said that he was selected at the age of five to start his athletic training. These eleven athletes are now in Minnesota because they have finished their athletic careers and are studying for a short time at the University of Minnesota in kinesiology (the study of human movement). Fortunately, SPA was able to host these athletes and facilitate a discussion between the Chinese professional athletes and SPA students. For both the athletes and students, it was an experience that highlighted the unique aspects of everyone’s seemingly normal lives and illuminated the experiences of others.

Arriving to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on the afternoon of Feb. 1, French exchange students from the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Blagnac, France were greeted by their St. Paul Academy and Summit School hosts with welcoming signs. The SPA students waited at the airport for over an hour in order to meet their correspondents.

On Feb. 2, the exchange students presented to the entire school during Monday assembly.

The French students will depart on Feb. 9, and SPA French students will make the trip to France over spring break.

CORRECTION 2/5/2015: Mme. Biseau was incorrectly named as M. Le

Martin Luther King Jr. led a revolutionary nonviolent movement in the 1960s, wanting nothing more than to “let freedom ring.” In memory of King’s tremendous strides in fighting racial inequality and to encourage further progress, St. Paul Academy and Summit School students gathered before a panel to discuss racial issues on Jan. 12 in an assembly organized by Common Ground and Intercultural Club. In order to continue and encourage further thought, the conversation from the assembly was then carried into the classrooms for follow up discussion Jan. 13.

The panelists were criminal defense attorney Paul Applebaum, hip hop artist and victim of police brutality Chris Lollie, public policy advocate Lonna Stevens Hunter, executive director of CAIR-MN Jaylani Hussein, SPA alum and intern with Bowdoin’s Dean of Multicultural Affairs Ashley Johnson [‘13], and Sarah Herder Education Director at The Advocates for Human Rights.

The assembly was a question and answer session, and students had the opportunity to learn from a range of different experiences with race, answering questions about everything from the underreporting and jurisdiction issues concerning rape of Native Americans to police brutality to what allies can do to help work towards racial equality.

“I liked [the assembly]. Hearing from a lot of voices, it feels like comparatively it was a lot better, just because we were getting diversity instead of a single speaker talking at us. There were different opinions and it was something that we could interact with,” senior Em Prozinski said.

Sophomore Wyatt Bliss agreed that it was a unique experience to hear from so many people. “The diverse perspectives [at the assembly] were all very motivating,” he said.

Junior Elena Youngdale said that she saw the need for the assembly and the later discussions, but that there was room for improvement. “Honestly [the assembly] was a little bit repetitive of other things we’ve heard before. I do think it was necessary, but it felt a little bit distant,” she said.

Youngdale said that the root of the problem with the discussions was how “We were asked questions. We were all locked in a Harkness room and someone came along with a sheet of paper [with questions]. It just seemed a little bit robotic,” Youngdale said.

While Bliss said that he found the assembly to be productive, he also felt that the discussions didn’t work very well. “The discussions would have been better if they were smaller. There were too many people,” he said.

Prozinski agreed that the discussions weren’t very effective. “There were definitely people who didn’t say anything, whether they were afraid to voice their opinions or something else,” she said. “We spent half of [Honors] Music Seminar talking about it, talking about a lot of different issues around race  or the way media portrays race. I almost feel like in classes, people are more comfortable sharing what they thought.”

It’s been half a century since King gave his I Have A Dream speech, and while his dream may not be fully realized yet, this assembly and these discussions aimed to educate in order to make progress towards racial equality.

Grab a dress or suit and some friends and get ready for a Night to Remember at St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s Valentine’s Dance. The theme, A Night to Remember , comes from the popular movie High School Musical. However, Student Activity Committee member, sophomore Mary Grant promises that the party won’t have a High School Musical theme. “It has to do somewhat with the color scheme,” Grant said.

Junior Karsten Runquist will be DJ, adding more of a personal touch to the dance. The dance will be held on Feb. 7 from 8-11 p.m. with final entry at 9 at the Germanic American Institute on Summit Ave. in St. Paul. Tickets cost $25 per person and are on sale at lunch.

The grade-level Peer Helpers are meant to be peer counselors. In order to equip them and build bonds between Peer Helpers’ members and therefore enhance their ability to help the school community, they went on retreat Jan. 24-25 at Camp Ihduhapi .

“We basically go and sit in this lodge and spend a lot of time learning about each other on a deeper level,” sophomore Peer Helper Lea Moore said. Moore states that it serves to enhance the connections between each grade through those bonds.

The group learned about Courageous Conversations, which, “…sets up a format where people have individual conversations around differences,” Upper School Counselor Susanna Short said. Short advises the group and facilitates the retreat.

These differences include race, religion, gender and sexuality: “I think learning and experiencing having hard conversations about issues that people are passionate about is always helpful,” Short said. “So you’re learning how to talk from your own experience, how to listen really intently to another person.”

These methods of discussing difficult topics can then be used by Peer Helpers to easily handle conversations about these issues.

Freshman Peer Helper Maya Shrestha believes the retreat will end up benefiting the school community by enhancing the group’s ability to discuss topics within their circle as well as the rest of the school.

“For this retreat we learned about courageous conversations which is something that I think will be very helpful for being able to have discussions with the St. Paul Academy and Summit School community about problems that we are facing in our world and in our school,” Shrestha said.

Along with Courageous Conversations, there are some consistent traditions over the retreat such as discussing sexual assault and dating violence, as well as how to conduct a conversation with a student who has experienced violence while also maintaining a boundary as to when an adult is needed in the situation.

Moore states that, by bonding with Peer Helpers from other grades and discussing grade-specific issues, the Peer Helpers can learn from each other.

“If one group or person is struggling, you can get many other opinions, different opinions especially, with difficult topics…feeling comfortable with other people and hearing other people’s opinions is really valuable,” Moore said.

The annual Red Cross Blood Drive, planned by Upper School Council, took place on Feb. 3 in the small gym. In past years, the Blood Drive has taken place later on in the year, but scheduling difficulties combined with restrictions on where the drive could be due to construction pushed the event up this year. Still, the drive was a success—the total donation amount for the day was 31 units of blood with over 50 donors.

The drive often faces challenges in finding eligible donors. Risk of disease from travelling outside the country, blood pressure, hemoglobin levels, and temperature are all taken into account, along with many other factors. In Minnesota, 16-year-olds can donate with parental consent, but additional requirements for those under 19 mean many young donors are turned away.

Junior Joel Tibbetts donated for the first time at the drive, inspired partly by his father’s frequent donations. “It felt good, aside from a little wooziness,” Tibbetts said. “I’m happy I did it,” he added.

The Valentine’s Dance was held on Jan. 7 at the Germanic-American Institute from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Producing one pound of beef uses as much fuel as driving a car thirty two miles. This statistic was considered as St. Paul Academy and Summit School decided to offer one meat free day of lunch each week.

Starting Jan. 5, Meatless Monday is on the menu. Chef Simon and the Taher team plan a day filled with vegetables, pastas, and non-animal protein.

“I love Meatless Monday. It gives me and other people who can’t have meat [for religious or personal reasons] a chance to have a full lunch, freshman Mira Zelle said.

“It’s great for vegetarians, like me,” junior George Stiffman added. “There are more hot food options.”

Zelle agrees: “Usually, the veggie option is very small and we don’t often get enough to eat. On Meatless Monday, non veggie people can still eat a full meal.”

Meatless Mondays is a global movement that works to help the environment and better people’s health. According to their website, it takes approximately 1,850 gallons of water to make 1 lb. of beef and 518 gallons to make 1 lb. of chicken; conversely, only about 39 gallons of water are used to make 1 lb. of vegetables.

Freshman Tom Patterson is not a fan of the day: “I do not like Meatless Monday because I love meat,” he said.

Senior Cullen McCabe suggests a compromise: “I think there should be sandwich meat out on Meatless Mondays at least.”

The decision to eat or not eat meat feels personal. “I think that the idea behind Meatless Monday is good, but I respect dietary choices of others and I hope that they respect dietary choices of mine. My dietary choice is to eat meat quite often,” freshman Jack Herrmann said.

Meat does still contain necessary protein, which is why every Monday there has been an additional source of protein available like cheese or beans.

Of Meatless Monday, freshman Maya Shrestha said, “It’s a great way to give vegetarians more options for meals. People who like meat are probably fine without it once a week.”

In truth, Meatless Monday may be doing those meat lovers a favor since, as the site reports, going meatless will help curb obesity, reduce cancer risk, lessen the risk for heart disease and stroke, fight diabetes and maintain longer life.

Senior Olivia Black said, “Having been a vegetarian for six years and participated in environmental science, I think it is important that as a community we help out in the global initiatives of lowering our environmental impact through reducing consumption of meat.”

It may have been colder in the Twin Cities than on Mars on Jan. 7 with wind chills of 35 below zero during the day, but St. Paul Academy and Summit School remained open in accordance with a new cold weather policy adopted this year. Under the change, if on the morning of the day of school the National Weather Service issues both a wind chill warning and reports wind chills to be 40 below, SPA will consider a closure or a delay.

However, the rules regarding massive snowfall or blizzards are not so well-defined: closure due to those factors will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Related Stories

Prozinski shares winter skin care tips

Regardless of the circumstances, SPA “will make every attempt to communicate the final decision to delay or close the evening before, and will issue a decision no later than 5:45 am on the day in question,” according to the new policy.

Compared to cold weather policies at other schools, SPA’s is largely on par. Minneapolis public schools, which were closed on Jan. 7, mandate a 35 below zero threshold for canceling school. St. Paul public schools are very similar to SPA in that their threshold for closing is minus 40.
In all cases of SPA’s closure, students and families can be informed via most forms of media, including social media, email, text, voice mail, and broadcast on major news channels.

SPA’s new policy also includes understandings of tribulations caused by cold weather: “In an extreme weather situation, our foremost concern is the safety of our students, parents, and staff while traveling to school. Late arrivals during extreme weather events are anticipated and understood, and parents should use their best judgment about travel to school during an extreme weather event.”

The second part of the Sophomore Retreat on Feb. 6 was dedicated to community service. In the morning, sophomores worked on signs that represented where they volunteered for their mandatory volunteer hours. In the afternoon, students helped pack food at Feed My Starving Children.

Mary Wollstonecraft. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony. Coco Chanel. Malala Yousafzai. These women are only a few of the revolutionaries that have worked to transform mindset in order to receive equal rights. Yet many of their stories remain unknown to students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. A spring senior elective titled History of Women in the World hopes to change all of that.

“We had several history teachers retire last year, so we evaluated our choices and I thought a women’s history class would fill the gap in our curriculum,” Upper School history teacher Nan Dreher said.

Obtaining intellectual satisfaction by gaining more specific knowledge about the role of women in society is the main reason junior Nadia Goldman decided to take this elective. “I know a lot [about women’s history]. I follow a lot of feminist struggles now, but I didn’t really know how they started so I was interested in that…I think it [this course] will provide background knowledge,” she said.

This class explores both how society shapes gender roles, and how gender roles have shaped societies in several regions of the world during a variety of time periods. Students will cover themes like religion, culture, education, law, and sexuality in relation to women historically.

Since this elective is still fairly new, the students in Dreher’s class have a lot of freedom regarding the material they’re going to cover. “[Dr. Dreher] is giving us a lot of input regarding the class [curriculum],” senior Mattie Daub said. “Everyone I’ve talked to is excited…even if you’re not naturally drawn to it [women’s history], it could still be appealing intellectually.”

Although it may seem as though the History of Women in the World class is geared more towards female than male students, Dreher said that it’s meant for “[anyone who has] a strong interest in historical topics, but also in current events and in finding ways to achieve gender equality.”

Senior Ian Sussna hopes that it won’t be the last class that tries to expand the perspectives shared: “[There should be] not just more courses [like the History of Women in the World], but more topics like this incorporated into the regular history classes,” he said.

Goldman believes it benefits the students who take it, since “there’s time for important discussions [about women]…it’s interesting to hear lots of people I don’t usually hear from speak up,” she said.

In most history classes, Sussna doesn’t see the proper attention he believes should be there regarding women. “Normally history classes touch on it [women’s history] in a really minor way…on the few highlights, ignoring how much of a struggle there still is today and how much room there is for improvement,” he said.

Daub hopes that this course will cover intersectionality between issues like racism and sexism, topics that usually aren’t discussed exclusively in any other course. “There are a lot of voices that don’t get heard in history…[this course is] a start,” she said. “A lot of influential women who’ve done a lot of things get muted in history. People play down their accomplishments. [This course] gives women who’ve accomplished great things recognition.”

Donating money to an organization is one thing, but it’s even more rewarding to be able to match a donation with a concrete action. Donating an animal to a family in need is a way to do this and to ensure that the needs of the community are met in a sustainable way. To fulfill this idea, members of the St. Paul Academy and Summit School student group, People for Animal Welfare and Safety (PAWS), organized a bake sale where all of the proceeds went to this cause.

The revenue from the bake sale that was held  from Feb. 19-20 during lunch periods will be donated to the charity Heifer International. Heifer is an organization that takes donations and uses them to buy animals such as goats, sheep, or ducks for a family in need. “The animals are given to people to help them live and give them products,” sophomore PAWS member Samantha Bluhm said.

Heifer International also functions off a model of sustainability, asking each family to whom they donate an animal to share its offspring with the community. Aside from just using the animals as a food source, families can used the products obtained from their livestock to become more economically independent. “They [can] use the sheep for wool then sell the wool that they produce to make money,” Bluhm said.

Spring brings all sorts of seasonal rituals: opening classroom windows, spending free periods playing on the lawn or in the courtyard, and, of course,  history research papers. The April history research paper is a longstanding St. Paul Academy and Summit School tradition, carrying through all four years. This year, however, the United States History faculty decided to make a change and move the junior history paper up to January and February in an attempt to even out the spring semester workload.

Although the US History curriculum has only gotten up to the turn of the century, topics for history papers ranged from early colonization of North America to fairly recent history. “I think it’s fun to read other people’s papers because you get to see what they’re interested in,” junior Hallie Sogin said.

Junior Danish Mahmood preferred having the paper later in the year, as it had been in the past. “I just did not like [the time change], because that made it overlap with the Gilded Age unit that we were supposed to learn. To have it overlap with the start of that unit made it so complicated—it made the start of the history paper process so hectic,” Mahmood said. “Our note-taking and all that was cut short, and, for me, it piled up in the end. It would have been nice to have your nice time later on,” he added.

Placing sixth in the playoffs for the MNHS Quiz Bowl league at Burnsville High School on Feb. 19, the St. Paul Academy and Summit School Quiz Bowl team surpassed their previous record of 13 from last season. Only the top four teams in each division qualified for playoffs, and all 16 teams competing also qualified for the 2015 NAQT High School National Championship on May 29-31 in Chicago. Some of the playoff games were taped and televised by the Burnsville Community Television, including the Spartans.

The Spartans won two out of a total of four games, making it to the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

“Our team is pretty proud of our season so far, we’ve done a lot better this year than last season,” sophomore Quiz Bowl member Sarah Wheaton said. “We did a lot better at the playoffs than we expected, which shows how much we’ve improved from last season.”

Wheaton enjoyed the fast paced atmosphere of the playoffs, in which all teams could feel the heightened pressure of the event.

“It was super competitive; people were buzzing much faster than normal to answer the questions,” Wheaton said.

Growing in popularity in the United States, Quiz Bowl is a competitive activity that pits two teams of four students against each other to see who can answer the most questions in a limited amount of time. Questions are drawn from popular culture, current affairs, and the standard academic curriculum, and aim to reflect knowledge that an educated person should possess.

“The questions are pretty varied; they ask about everything from science and math to pop culture,” Wheaton said.

The team will participate in the Run for the Roses tournament on Feb. 21 at Roseville High School, and will continue to train for nationals at the end of the season.

The Drake Arena was filled over capacity on Feb. 24 during school hours but there was no hockey game or even an ice event of any kind. In fact, nothing was happening in Drake Arena at all.

Freshman Grant Gunderson was in the gym for Fitness for Life class when the incident occurred. “Some kid threw a basketball up into the sprinkler system and it went off in the gym,” Gunderson said.

Immediately the fire alarm was triggered and St. Paul Academy and Summit School students evacuated the building. After standing in chilly 26 degree weather for several minutes, students were herded to Drake Arena amongst the sounds of fire truck sirens and excited chatter.

Middle and Upper School students crowded onto the spectator benches for a stay of about ten minutes. To pass the time students did the wave back and forth across the benches, started impromptu pop song choirs, and speculated amongst friends about what could’ve caused the disturbance.

In addition to the relocation of SPA students, the agitation of the sprinkler system resulted in flooding of the gym and athletic hallway. The weight room and boys’ locker room were especially affected. At the end of the day athletes were seen carrying their waterlogged belongings, previously stored in the locker room, in large plastic bags.

Get your umbrellas #gymflood2015

A video posted by Tom Patterson (@to_mpatterson) on Feb 24, 2015 at 11:42am PST

After their stay at Drake Arena, students returned to school only missing the first 10 minutes of tutorial. With the exception of orchestra being canceled, most classes resumed as normal but were slightly disrupted as the fire alarm system went off several times as it was reset during the first few minutes of class.

Related Stories

From the construction zone: A sneak peek of the new Huss Center of Performing Arts

Huss Center plans announced

On Feb. 27, students and faculty were given the opportunity to tour the construction site of the new Huss Center of Performing Arts.

Students are optimistic about the new building. “It is going to be amazing and I am so thankful that I get to use the stage and facilities for a year,” junior Taylor Rients said.

Rients, who starred in this years’ One Acts, noted that the larger stage will change performances: “It will be very different than performing musicals and one acts on this stage rather than the Lower School stage which can hardly fit our very large and talented casts,” she said.

She also expressed her gratitude towards the multitude of new performing and visual arts opportunities that the new arts center would offer. “The opportunities that are going to be available for not only actors but for set builders, lighting and sound crew, directors and conductors are unlimited. Thanks to the Huss Center artists, now SPA will be able to express and practice our hobbies and talents,” she said.

On Mar. 13 St. Paul Academy and Summit School freshmen took a break from their regular advisory routine and immersed themselves into the world of Shakespearean drama. Each year freshman English students break into small groups and focus on a scene from the Shakespeare work that they are studying (Macbeth this year). The groups create a theatrical version of a scene of their choosing, then perform said scene in front of their English class. The most successful selections will be performed in front of the grade during the Macbeth Fest

“For Macbeth fest, I am reenacting a scene of Shakespeare with two of my classmates. We are putting our own twist on the setting without disrupting Shakespeare’s famous language,” freshman Ben Konstan said.

Students from freshman English classes and junior/senior Shakespeare classes recently went to see the Guthrie Theater’s Production of Macbeth, but despite the steady influx of Shakespeare, Konstan still thinks the production is interesting and fun to perform. “I find it particularly interesting because it engages me in a new,  yet old, language. The experience has allowed by to briefly write and speak in Shakespearean English,” he said.

German Exchange travels to Hamburg, Germany

Gita Raman
Students going on the German Exchange pose for a photo during one of the tutorial sessions that were held for students to learn more about the trip. “The most important thing for me is that I will end the trip with improved German speaking skills,“ senior Luke Bishop said.

In the spirit of cultural exchange and language immersion at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, an exchange trip to Germany will be hosted for German-speaking students in 2015. This exchange has been happening since 1996.

This year’s exchange participants will visit the Heisenberg-Gymnasium, a high school in Hamburg, Germany.

Students are set to leave the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport on Mar. 12 and return on Mar. 26. Upper School German teacher Jutta Crowder has organized this year’s exchange to and from Germany.
The Heisenberg-Gymnasium is about 4,000 miles away from SPA. There, students will learn about a foreign culture through immersive exposure to foreign language.

“I think that is the most important thing to have in a language immersion experience. When you try out your language skills and you do it from first thing in the morning, all day long. And the second thing is to have another look as a culture and in return, see our culture in another perspective,” Crowder said. On these journeys to Germany, Crowder finds a special moment in each and every trip. “After a week or ten days, all of a sudden it feels like your ears pop, and you go ‘Oh, I get it’. You start to understand and it is so exciting. It is so exciting for me [to see students understanding]. I love that,” Crowder said.

“The most important thing for me is that I will end the trip with improved German speaking skills,” senior Luke Bishop said.
Along with improving speaking skills, Bishop hopes to become closer with his classmates and see what it is like to be independent.

Spanish speaking students to fly to Spain

Students visit Marbella Beach in Andalusia, Spain over Spring Break 2013 on the Spanish trip. From left to right are alums of class of 2014 Emma Chang and Claire Foussard, and senior Eva Perez-Greene

When learning a language, there is no tool more valuable or challenging than total immersion. While exchange trips are popular among students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, travel offers an equally enriching opportunity for language growth and cultural understanding.

This Spring Break approximately 20 SPA Spanish students will stroll the streets of Barcelona and Seville, absorbing the rich culture of these Spanish cities and enjoying the food, climate, and language of Spain.

“I’m especially excited to see all of the old architecture in Spain, since it’s a lot older than any of the architecture here in America. It’s going to be beautiful,” junior Miriam Tibbetts said.
Students will stay in Spain for 11 days. The students will arrive in Barcelona Mar. 14-18. From there, the group will fly to Seville and stay there until Mar. 25. During the stay in Seville, students will go on day excursions to sites such as the city of Cordoba and Pueblos Blancos.

“I’m also very excited to see “los Pueblos Blancos” in Andalusia,” Tibbetts said.

In addition to exploring Spain, the trip’s main focus is to help students learn Spanish.

“I chose to do the trip because it’s a goal of mine to become fluent in Spanish,” Tibbetts said. “I am also really interested in learning more about Spanish culture. It’s going to be fun!” Tibbetts said.

French exchange group goes to Toulouse, France

Javier Whitaker-Castañeda
Students gather in the French Room to learn more about the French exchange that will happen during Spring Break. “I’m excited to go to France for the first time and eat a lot of pastries and cheese and experience it all with my friends,” junior Caroline Montague said.

Student exchanges are undoubtedly a fantastic way to experience a language but they have more to give students than just speaking practice.

Over the course of two weeks in early February, French students from Lycée St Exupéry, a school in Blagnac which is a suburb of Toulouse, came to stay in Minnesota. They had a chance to interact one on one with English speakers at St. Paul Academy and Summit School and to explore Minnesota.

Over spring break when they go to France, SPA students look to experience French culture take advantage of everything that the exchange has to offer. On Feb. 26 students going on the exchange attended a quick info session as part of final preparations before the trip.

Trip advisers Aimeric Lajuzan, Sophie Kerman, and Eric Severson took the opportunity to cover topics ranging from pickpocketing, the trip’s schedule, and how to do “la bise,” the typical greeting of a kiss on each cheek. They also that SPA students will be completely immersed in French culture during the exchange.

“It’s the cross-cultural dimension that is incredibly important,” Lajuzan said.

Students will spend four days in Paris with a chance to visit attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Afterwards they will travel by train to Blagnac to start the student exchange part of trip. They will stay with their host families and spend time at their host student’s school. “[I am looking forward to] visiting and seeing how their school works … and also eating their food,” junior Justin Zanaska said.

The exchange plans to give students a unique opportunity to explore French culture. “Students spend time working on different language skills [in class] but there are not many opportunities to interact with native French students.

Exchanges help bringing the culture into the school and it means we are sure that all of our students get to interact with students their age,” Lajuzan said.

Walking down the streets of a new city, breathing in smells of local food, hearing snippets of a conversation in a language that is not familiar. For years, select St. Paul Academy and Summit School students travel to Spain, France, or Germany on language exchange trips and return back feeling accomplished, with improvement in their language skills after experiencing a new culture firsthand.

Some students choose to participate in the trip and others in the exchanges, and some feel inspired to go on both. With each happening every other year, the opportunity is something that shouldn’t be allowed to slip by.

To learn a language through immersion in the culture provides meaningful and lasting benefits. Completely surrounding oneself with the culture, language, and vibe of a country creates an exciting learning environment. Students will experience everything firsthand; the food, the unique activities, culture, and even learning some slang terms that most wouldn’t know.

The idea of being in a place where this new language becomes the primary form of communication pushes the use of the language as much as possible. The language exchange trips provide a new form of learning other than sitting in a classroom. From seeing the sights in the ancient cities in Spain, to speaking and getting to know a host family in France, all of the situations are new and unique, allowing for an interesting way to learn.

For any students who are skeptical about participating in these trips: take a risk. Whether that means going on the trip or the exchange, pushing oneself to be put in exciting, possibly uncomfortable, and exciting situations will ultimately be beneficial. No matter the language, country, or type of trip, students will experience adventures, improve their language skills, and create unforgettable memories with strangers and friends alike.