The Archmere Student’s Global Perspective Archmere Students and Alumni Gain Global Perspective Through Education & Travel Article contributors: Maddie Cowperthwaite ‘13, Kathlyn Carney ‘13 Archmere Academy’s tradition of academic excellence has always been focused on ensuring that our mission is reflected in the design of academic and extracurricular programs. In creating an educational experience that prepares students for college and for the personal and professional futures that lie ahead of them, the Archmere curriculum focuses on strengthening several student core competencies – including developing global perspective. The Academy continually presents a number of opportunities for students and faculty to connect with other cultures and develop their sense of world community. Recently, several Archmere families have hosted exchange students from Germany and last Spring we welcomed student visitors from Haiti. This past summer, three faculty members accompanied Dr. Michael A. Marinelli ’76, Headmaster, and Board Chair Robert E. Shields ’60 on a Heritage Tour, exploring Norbertine Abbeys in Belgium and France and collaborating on ways to infuse Archmere’s rich Norbertine heritage into our classroom curriculum and use it to shed light on our global connections. Additionally, travel opportunities are offered to Archmere students each year. Some of the most recent student trips included excursions to Mexico, Peru, Spain, Germany, France, the Galapagos Islands, and Jamaica. Last summer, a number of students traveled to France through the World Languages and Cultures department. They lived with host families and toured the country with faculty members. “Going to the country of the language I’ve been taking was indescribable,” says senior Olivia Garcia. “I definitely got a sense of culture and learned the language better by simply being immersed in it. This past November, seventeen Archmere band students
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Eleanor McNamara ’15 demonstrates proper embouchure to a beginner Trumpet player at Belmont Academy in Jamaica.
traveled to Jamaica to help start a music program at Belmont Academy, a school located in West Moreland Parrish, a rural and isolated area of Jamaica. The students took part in a two-day intensive peer-teaching program designed to teach 60 Belmont Academy students the basics on various band instruments. The Archmere band donated several instruments, two series of method books, and many other supplies to the school. “The trip to Jamaica let me experience the poverty that exists in other areas of the world first hand – it opened my eyes and humbled me,” said senior Nick Acciaviati ’13. This spring break, a group of students will travel to the Galapagos Islands with the science department, to walk the path that Charles Darwin travelled as he made discoveries about evolution by natural selection. These trips, in conjunction with the global focus that each department includes in their classroom curricula, make an immediate academic and cultural impact on the Archmere students – but they also have lasting effects on our students that help to build global perspectives that they will carry throughout their lives. For many of them, this will aid them as they interact with others in the business world, travel, or meet new people. For others, an understanding of other cultures will spark interests and start careers that take them across the globe.