John E. Creeden Named SYA President 

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are delighted to announce the appointment, effective July 1, 2011, of the next President of School Year Abroad, John E. Creeden.   

Jack Creeden is an educator of deep experience and many professional and personal talents. He encapsulates the qualities SYA was seeking in a new leader. Jack has held significant leadership positions at both the university and K-12 school levels. He has developed strategic plans, created innovative curricula, supervised faculty and staff, expanded global programs, and successfully completed a major capital campaign. Jack and his family are internationally minded, the family having lived in England for a year and both of his children having participated in foreign language immersion and homestay programs. Jack is committed to the mission of School Year Abroad. Read more>

Tribute to Woody Halsey:  Gratitude for 31 Years of Service

Over the course of 31 years President Woody Halsey has devoted heart and soul to bringing SYA from a modest program tied to its founding schools to a level of independence, vibrancy and achievement-exemplified, more than anything else, by its transformative effect upon students, making them, among many other things, forever at home in the world.

We invite you to share your messages, memories and well wishes with Woody. These notes will be included in a printed tribute book which will be presented to him at the July 20, 2011 SYA Homecoming at the JFK Library. Click here to access the submission form.

Messages will also appear in a virtual tribute book found here.

The Campaign for Spain:  A Permanent Home for Our Flagship School

In 1964, 12 pioneering students boarded the SS Aurelia en route to Spain to launch a study abroad program that has since grown tremendously in size and breadth. For the very first time, nearly 47 years later, SYA is dropping anchor permanently in Spain. 

Click the image (left) to watch the story unfold in the video, "Dropping Anchor #1" 

Visit The Campaign for Spain website for more details.

On the SYA Bookshelf

In Too Deep

Alison Fitzgerald FR'86

Bloomberg reporter Alison Fitzgerald co-authored In Too Deep, which covers BP's troubled history and examines the risk-taking culture at BP that led to the disastrous oil spill of April 2010. Hear the NPR interview and see a video>

France and its Empire Since 1870

Alice Conklin FR'74

The main premise of this book is that while France and the U.S. are "sister republics," they exhibit profound differences that are as compelling as their apparent similarities. The hope is that it may reach an even broader audience of anyone interested in understanding the political, social and cultural history of France since 1870. Read more>

SYA Homecoming 2011:  Honoring the Past, Welcoming the Future

Save the evening of Wednesday, July 20, 2011, for this year's annual SYA Homecoming at the JFK Library in Boston. Join our Resident Directors as we celebrate the past and look forward to the future by honoring Woody Halsey's 31-year career and welcoming Jack Creeden as our new leader. Classes ending in 1s and 6s are encouraged to celebrate their reunions. If you would like to join the celebration please contact Susan McLean .

SYA China:  Six Teams Go For Gold on Crocodile Island

 

Watch the video (left) of SYA China students as they set off to Fujian Province for experiential education and the SYA Amazing Race. They camped overnight on Crocodile Island, where the six student teams raced to see who could collect the most trash and also learned the fine art of planting mangroves.

SYA France:  Zoe Wood Through the Eyes of a Teacher

 

by Terry Driskill, SYA France English teacher

Zoe's smile recalls Gatsby's, "a quality of eternal reassurance in it," "that has precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."  Never a word about herself, so you'd never know that by the time you crawled out of bed for your 8:00 class, she had already battled Massachusetts Avenue, twenty miles in and twenty out, for figure skating practice; that she was just thirteen when her team won bronze at the World Synchronized Skating Championships; that, impossibly, she fit club soccer practice, a half hour on the piano, four to five hours on the books, and family dinner and conversation, into her every evening before, cruelly, the alarm rang at 4:45 a.m. Read more>

SYA Italy:  Journey Through Umbria - The Long Road to Assisi

 

by Patrick Scanlon

SYA Italy Resident Director

Our hotel lay in the plain below the Basilica di San Francesco, perched in the mist of the cool, humid morning in Assisi. On foot, we were to follow the same route that pilgrims have traced for almost eight centuries up the hill from Santa Maria degli Angeli, to the city, and then east through the medieval pinks and whites of the local stone that have made Assisi seem gentler and sweeter than most gentle, sweet Italian towns. We made our way out of the walls to the trailhead leading up to the Eremo delle Carceri. All told, it should have been a brisk 8km trek to the sanctuary that housed the cell of Saint Francis from his days as a humble monk, founder of the order of Franciscans and the origins of the work that would lead him to become Italy's patron saint. Had we done it authentically, we probably would not have worn shoes. It turns out we were glad we did. Read more>

SYA Japan:  Tea Time in Ichinomiyan - Grace and Beauty in a Teacup

 

by Helen Sayen JP'11 (The Agnes Irwin School)

In SYA Japan, the class spends half of every Wednesday going out to see what the local community has to offer. One particularly enriching experience was the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Every movement was executed with perfect timing, every gesture made with utmost beauty and grace. It was not only amazing to watch, but to experience it first hand was something I'll never forget. Read more>

SYA Spain:  My Host Family - Better Than I Dreamed They Could Be

by Nick Richard ES'11 (Hawken School)

SYA Vietnam:   Ted Godfrey, AP Environmental Science Faculty

 I am a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Panama ('97-'99) where I lived with an indigenous group of people called the Ngöbe in a lowland tropical rain forest along the Cricamola River. My job was to teach environmental education to students and teachers through participatory teaching techniques. This was my first experience living in a developing country and as is common with Peace Corps volunteers, one that changed my perspective of the world. Read more>

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