This story by Derek Carson was published in the Bennington Banner on May 30.
[A]RLINGTON — The Arlington School District is exploring the possibility of working with an organization called SPIRAL International to host a student exchange program with China.
Curriculum Director Luisa Millington, who is spearheading the project, said that Arlington Memorial High School has had a Chinese teacher on campus for 10 years, making it an ideal partner for a dual-diploma program.
SPIRAL International, which is based in Burlington, currently partners with 10 Vermont high schools, as well as schools in New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire, for long-term hosting of students, and partners with many others throughout the northeastern U.S. for shorter-term stays.
“It’s a little more of a formal exchange program than we’re running now, or than what is usually run,” said Superintendent Bill Bazyk at the board’s meeting last week. “But that’s not what we’re talking about tonight; we’re talking about dipping our toes in it.” The school is looking into hosting a two-week camp over the summer for about 25 Chinese high school students, assuming that host families can be found. If that turns out to be a good fit for the school and the community, said Bazyk, the district can then have a larger discussion about expanding the program into the school year.
Millington said that a few Arlington teachers would need to be on-site for the summer program. The students participating do not speak English fluently, and would have English class in the morning and visit the surrounding community during the afternoon. She suggested Lake Paran and Lake Shaftsbury as examples of possible destinations. Arlington would receive a stipend for each student, but would be responsible for finding host families, who would also receive a stipend to cover food expenses.
Since 2010, SPIRAL International has hosted over 2,400 Chinese middle and high school students at one- or two-week “Summer Adventure and Learning Camps” in New England.
If all goes well, groups of tuition-paying Chinese students could begin attending Arlington Memorial High School starting in 2019. Millington said Arlington students would also have the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in China.
Bazyk said that, if the program is successful and the district wants to embrace it, as many as 25 Chinese students could be visiting Arlington each semester. He said that Arlington had individual foreign exchange students from Spain and Denmark this school year.
The board expressed enthusiastic support for the idea, but acknowledged that there would be several logistical hurdles before a group of students attend AMHS during the school year. Board Chairwoman Nicol Whalen said that the program represents a great opportunity, “with the understanding that there are many, many questions if we were to go forward with the full program, (such as) having non-English-speaking students in the classrooms and what that would mean for teaching.”
“If you think think this is the path to follow,” said Millington to the board, “Bill and I will sit down with them and figure out the details, and go from there.”
“It’s no secret that all over Vermont the population is shrinking,” said Bazyk. “Schools need students, this is not unique to Arlington. (Burr and Burton Academy), I think, has 70 exchange students there this year. So is it something we want to get into? We don’t have to talk about it tonight, but this two-week program is a good way, this summer, to kind of dip our toes in and see if we want it.”
Bazyk said that he had some conversations with Jim Baker of the Arlington Renewal Project, who he said described the two-week summer program as a great opportunity, and that his organization was willing to help find host families.
SPIRAL, which stands for Special Programs for Intercultural Relationships and Learning, was founded in 2010 by two educators, Dr. Kenneth Hood and Dr. Emily Guo, who witnessed the growing desire of Chinese parents to send their children to school in the United States.
“Though we have several programs available, our two most common are culture camps and long-term stays,” reads SPIRAL’s website, spiralinternational. org. “Each summer we offer an American culture and language camp for students who are middle and high school age. In groups of 30 students, they come to Vermont, New Hampshire, or Connecticut to spend 12 days. During those days, they receive English instruction in the mornings with about 15 American students who act as ‘ambassadors,’ that is, as helpers in learning English. In the afternoons, all the students put the new learning to use as they take field trips in the community. In the evenings and on weekends, the Chinese visitors spend time with their American host families.
“In a second program, SPIRAL places tuition-paying Chinese high school students in American schools so that they can gain confidence in English with the goal of enrolling at an American university. They participate fully in the local high school of their host family. They become part of the family and part of the community.”
“Arlington is a town made for this. Our history, the clean air, the Battenkill, it’s the things we take for granted that the rest of the world does not have,” said Bazyk. “You do an exchange program to where most millennial families want to live right now, not to make fun of these towns or anything, but if you go to Somerville or Boston right now, it’s a very hot place, with lots of people moving in, but I’m not sure it has the same qualities that we have here. There are countries that do appreciate what we have here. So it is a natural fit for us, given our history and geographical assets.”
