BFA Fairfax Celebrates its 4th Chinese Cultural Exchange Camp

Target 4 – Engaged Community Partners. FWSU staff and students will collaborate, innovate, create and conceptualize ideas and learning with local, regional, state, and global partners to make a difference in their community, state, and world.

Action Step – Develop partnerships with global partners to carry out a project related to units of study.

Indicator of Success – Collaborative student projects/partnerships become part of the fabric of the broader community.

For the fourth consecutive year, BFA Fairfax High School is hosting students from China in a two-week long cultural and language exchange program. The students are brought to Vermont by SPIRAL International for a 3-week intensive English Language immersion program. FWSU-area host families are welcoming the visiting students into their homes, which undoubtedly enriches their experience in the our country. The group has already spent time in Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, and will be visiting Boston before they fly home. BFA educators Sara Villeneuve and Emily Cogan are serving as co-coordinators and co-lead teachers roles for this project.

Student leadership is an essential component of the BFA program. High School students serve as mentors to their Chinese friends throughout the exchange. It is a great experience for our students with lasting benefits. Past mentors have shared how important this connection was to them as learners and some have even kept in touch with the visiting Chinese students.

Cultural understanding is another pivotal piece of the exchange. Schools throughout FWSU have been promoting the concept of Intercultural Competence. Programs such as BFA’s Cultural Summer Exchange aids students in communicating with one another in Fairfax, even though they have different cultures and languages. The program provides an environment that enables students to share subject matters and to also socialize. As pictured above, our students do have a lot in common.

This year the program features a technology-rich environment to mirror how students at BFA, and our guests, learn. Mrs. Villeneuve created the curriculum using iBooks which is freely accessible to both students and mentors through iPads or individual handheld devices.

Friendship and colleagueship is certainly a huge part of the exchange each summer. We are proud of our students, families and teachers who are working hard to create memories that will last a lifetime.