By Rachel Fleddermann
Staff Writer for Sandia Prep Times
A new program available to Prep students called School Year Abroad allows students to study abroad without leaving their language and culture behind.
Students have the option to go to China, France, Italy, Spain or Vietnam for either a semester or an entire school year.
Unlike other exchange programs, SYA has its own high schools set up in the countries. Exchange students are taught by American teachers and attend school with other American students. Some classes are taught in English in the beginning and then transition into the target language.
A student has never failed the SYA courses because he or she did not understand the foreign language, according to a representative of the SYA program.
SYA’s goal is for students to get an international education, learn a language quickly, and understand the culture they’re living in.
For junior Claire Cooley, a foreign exchange program could mean dual citizenship to France, where she was born.
Cooley, whose family hosted a foreign exchange student when she was a freshman, wants to see the other side of an exchange program as well as improve her language skills. She is not nervous to use the SYA program because it has its own high school in the foreign country.
“The slow immersion is good,” Cooley said.
Cooley wanted to be a foreign exchange student before, but she said she was told she had to either drop out of Prep and test back in or pay Prep’s tuition while she spent a semester in another country.
SYA allows for several weeks of travel during the school year so that students can experience what they’ve been learning.
According to a SYA representative, students also are encouraged to travel with other students, but without a chaperone, to discover the country on their own. Though they would have to pay for their independent travels, the trips are usually less expensive than traveling in America.
The cost of the SYA program for a full academic year abroad, excluding airfare and spending money, is $47,200. Among other things, this includes school tuition, medical insurance, room and board, and trips with the school. The fee for enrollment, books, and standardized testing is $800. Financial aid is available to those who need it, and students can also qualify for merit-based scholarships for the program.
Prep graduate Mason Bryan, who went to Zaragoza, Spain, for the second semester of his junior year, organized the trip outside of school through the exchange program AYUSA. His school credits from Spain did not transfer into high school credits, which meant he had to double up on English courses for the second semester of his senior year.
Being an exchange student with SYA will not hurt a student’s college application process. Students earn academic credits in the SYA program, and they can take the ACT and SAT abroad.
Before, students at Prep have been left to arrange their programs for themselves, which has led to mixed results. Some students came home early because they were unhappy, or had trouble re-integrating into school when they returned.
Head of School Steve Albert said he was thinking about SYA in order to make going on a foreign exchange program easier.
Bryan’s science, math, literature, and history classes were taught in Spanish.
“Understanding the language was really difficult at first,” Bryan said in an email. “I was a lot more behind (in understanding the language) than I thought.”
Bryan did not feel comfortable talking in Spanish until the third month of his exchange. In terms of classes, Bryan said that while it forced him to learn Spanish, he “spent so much time feeling lost and confused because I simply could not understand the concepts being taught.”
However, Bryan said that he did a lot of learning outside of the classroom.
Albert believes students should participate in foreign exchange programs in order to put their own community in another context and to understand cultural choices. Albert noted, however, that the SYA program is not the only option for a foreign exchange program.
Students also do not have to give up extra-curricular activities if they study abroad with the SYA program. In fact, they’re required to do an extra-curricular activity to meet local kids. However, students would have to be on a club team rather than the school team.
Each student stays with his or her own host family during their stay abroad.

SYA deadlines:

• Jan. 16: complete application submitted for students applying for a merit scholarship.
  
• Feb. 1: financial aid documents due for students applying for financial aid
  
• For more information, go to www.sya.org.