Global Exchange Program OLD

Dear Families of CSN,

I welcome you to the Global Exchange Programs page and hope you find yourself excited to learn more about this opportunity after perusing the information contained herein.

CSN offers two opportunities for your child, and your entire family, to participate in a global exchange. The American School of Valencia (ASV) in Valencia, Spain and the Bavarian International School (BIS) in Munich, Germany, partner with Community School of Naples as both visitors and hosts for four weeks each school year.

We welcome students from ASV to Naples in early January, and share the beauty of southwest Florida’s environment with them through an airboat ride and ecological tour in the Everglades. Students from ASV as well as CSN students have together created artificial oyster reefs through the FGCU Science Center in Bonita Springs, using recycled hockey sticks to create habitats for oysters, encouraging water purification in our own backyard.

CSN students in grades seven through ten visit the city of Valencia in March to enjoy the annual Fallas festival, a UNESCO World Heritage Festival that celebrates Spanish history and culture. Students travel to the city of Xativa and Peniscula to tour castles, complementing their seventh grade history class here at CSN. Spanish language usage is woven throughout their experiences but not a prerequisite to travel.

We invite our eighth through tenth grade students to exchange with the Bavarian International School, housed in a 13^th century castle outside of the city of Munich. Students travel over Winter Break and while in Germany, take historical tours of the city as well as the Deutsches Museum and Dachau Concentration Camp. A ski trip to Garmisch is always a highlight for our group as well. Shortly following our visit to Munich, we welcome our host students to Naples later in February. Students from Germany enjoy a visit to the Everglades and an annual trek to Busch Gardens.

All students who exchange attend school in the host country, going to classes with their hosts, traveling to and from school in a way that is sometimes very different from how they arrive at CSN. Reliance on public transportation, an altered daily schedule for meal times, experience with students from a wide variety of countries, and surrogate home lives that are a mix of both English and world languages are what they will encounter during their time abroad.

The benefits of getting into the world independent of family yet still representing the Community School of Naples are many. Students serve as de facto ambassadors of our school, community and their own families. They serve as welcoming hosts when the student with whom they lived visits Naples and attends CSN with them. They see their own world through different eyes, building perspective and creating questions. What better way to begin to see themselves as global citizens than to visit a new place, become a guest in someone else’s home, and then welcome that same person to their own home. The connections can be deep and long-lasting.

Interested in learning more? Please feel free to reach out to me with questions.

Mrs. Cynthia Preston
Director of Global Exchange Program