USA High School Program in Action!

Maren Hemminghaus works with our High School team in Germany. She recently went to California and Florida on a Familiarization trip guided by our partner CIEE. She was visiting schools for our USA Select program to get an idea of what schools can offer our international students, where they are located and what the highlights of the schools are. 

On her travels through LA to San Diego and Miami to Orlando she visited several schools and had the chance to meet up with some of our students currently studying in the USA. It is always great to have the chance to talk to our students about their experiences so far, seeing them in their new surroundings and how familiar and natural they seem in their new environment.
Meeting staff and pupils of new and current schools gives Maren and the team first-hand information about what is offered to our students at each school, the student body, what schools are known for and so on. Many of the schools in California (Palm Desert) have a panoramic view of the mountains in the background and one school in Orlando is right next to the Universal Studios so you can see the top of the Harry Potter castle from the school grounds! 

Maren also visited Puerto Rico for the National CIEE Meeting where she met some of the CIEE staff and many of the Local Coordinators from all over the U.S.  Here she had the opportunity to talk to them about some of our current students as well as prospective students.  Regional Directors presented the highlights of their regions by giving out chocolate, info sheets and fun things typical of their region. 

This was also a great time to discover a bit of Puerto Rico and connect with the Local Coordinators who are our link between host families, students and schools. 

Jamie's adventures in Greenland

At the end of this month 3 of Xplore's directors, will be embarking on a 100km walk across the ice of Greenland. Whilst they are doing this as a personal “challenge” (as they do each year!) Chris’s 14 year old son Jamie is also joining them and making the most of the experience by raising money for a very worthwhile cause. 

Jamie, along with the Xplore team, will be trekking 100km across Southern Greenland within a target of seven days, to raise funds to provide more sporting opportunities for disabled children across Sussex.

Jamie and the team will be embarking on their Arctic adventure on 24th March, starting from base camp at Kulusuk before returning via a sea ice route. They will be self-supporting, travelling on skis and foot, hauling sledges weighing 50kg containing all supplies and equipment and camping overnight away from settlement and communication.

Jamie is fundraising for Active Sussex, the charity working to increase the number of children and young people participating in sport and physical activity in Sussex, with funds going specifically towards running the Parallel Youth Games 2015 event; a multi-sport competition for disabled school children in Sussex.

Jamie, a gifted athlete, was inspired to raise money for disabled children after suffering a debilitating hip injury when competing at the English Schools Championships in July last year, rendering him out of action for 6 months. This led him to acknowledge what it must feel like to be permanently disabled, and to recognise the importance that events like the Parallel Youth Games have in creating fully inclusive sporting opportunities for young people.

Please watch this 90 second video to find out more: https://vimeo.com/119858120

If you would like to support Jamie's efforts for the Parallel Youth Games, please follow this link to donate: www.localgiving.com/greenland4activesussex

Everyone in the Xplore team wish them the very best on what is going to be a true adventure. We will update the blog in a few weeks time with how they got on.

A Year of Cultural Exchange with China

HRH The Duke of Cambridge is today launching the 'GREAT Festival of Creativity' at Shanghai's contemporary Long Museum. This is the first major event in the 'Year of Cultural Exchange' between the UK and China. The year of cultural exchange will showcase the best of Chinese and British innovation and creativity in areas such as education.

Tomorrow The Duke will be attending the inaugural British Council Global Alumni Awards to highlight the advantages of a world-class UK education system.  

This is also the first year of Xplore programmes being inbound and outbound to China with our fully integrated language camp in Shenzhen and our High School placements for Chinese students in the UK.  At our language camp in Shenzhen, UK students will learn Mandarin with the support of Chinese students and also join them for activities and excursions to some amazing sites. We hope this cultural exchange will benefit all the students as they learn about each other's language and culture.