SCHOLARS Three Fourth Formers – Makayla Boxley, Brandon Henry and Khat Tuchscherer – were awarded the scholarships to travel abroad last summer. Boxley and Henry spent five weeks in China, and Tuchscherer in Spain, through the School Year Abroad (SYA) Summer program. For the first four weeks of the SYA Summer program, the students lived with a host family, participated in language and cultural instruction in the classroom, and deepened their learning through local excursions. The fifth week focused on travel, allowing the students to explore other regions of their “homestay” country. Viault, who traveled extensively growing up and made it a priority for his own family, strongly believes in the transformative nature of living abroad. “My wife, Lucille, and I had the opportunity to live and work in Zurich during the 1990s,” he recounts, “and work took us to every country in eastern and central Europe, and to the Middle East and Africa.” Their son, Russell ’96, spent a full summer living with a French family and working in Paris, and a granddaughter is currently living with a French family while studying in Brittany. “It is a challenge to live someplace for an extended period with a host family,” acknowledges Viault. “It takes a special kind of high school student to take on this challenge. Our family is very happy to be able to introduce this to Lawrenceville and support it.” Boxley says her experience living in Beijing challenged her but ultimately helped her improve her Chinese language skills. Travel to other parts of the country expanded the opportunities to communicate with and learn from the residents. “Coming into this experience, I understood that I would be immersed in an entirely different language and culture,” she says, “and I ultimately realized that my best learning of Chinese occurred when I was challenged to the point of discomfort and I had to take the initiative. The most valuable learning happened outside the classroom.” Tuchscherer had used her Spanish language skills with friends who were native speakers and with her grand-
mother, who teaches the language, but SYA was her first extended experience with Spanish language and culture.
“It was so different to be there,” she says. “Living and traveling in Spain made me aware of the unique aspects of all cultures, and how truly understanding a culture requires an experience like this, using the language almost exclusively and seeing different aspects of the country.” Living in China with a host family last summer was the answer to Brandon Henry’s wish for experiential education. “I grew tired of reading about events that occurred throughout history,” he says. “I wanted to go to these places and make what I was reading in my textbooks tangible. “Traveling allowed us to open our hearts and minds to inquire more about the world around us than our newspapers can accommodate,” Henry adds. “In my own life I think of how far I have come and how far I have yet to go. Coming from Newark to go to an independent school and then go on to study abroad in China … I believe the future is in the hands of those who strive towards it because of the opportunities around them.” “There’s a dramatic difference between being a tourist and living daily in the culture,” Viault affirms. “When you stay in hotels you get one perspective, but it’s another experience to live there. You learn the language, deal with shopkeepers, and engage with local residents.” Viault’s childhood experiences with international travel also dominated his career with Kraft General Foods and as vice chairman of global food products giant General Mills. A Lawrenceville trustee since 1999, he served as Board chair from 2005 to 2009 and was elected a trustee emeritus in 2011. “We have a fund at the New York Community Trust where our family members go when they believe in something,” Ray says of the decision to establish the Viault Family International Scholarship. “We all agreed this would be a wonderful thing to do.”