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2006 Alumni Reflect on their Experiences
"I've attended four different summer programs, but by far ISS was the most enjoyable. It was the perfect balance between work and play, structure and spontaneity—in addition to being a great catalyst for personal growth. The staff were amazing, interesting, and personable, and the students were some of the most intelligent, sociable, kind, and fun people I've had the privilege of working and living with.
I'm from Toronto and go to a public school where about 70% of the students are immigrants; so I'm used to the kind of diversity you find in Paris. Two years ago I lived with a French family on an exchange program, and I just fell in love with French culture. The Service Learning program attracted me because it provides the opportunity to give back to the community. My service in Paris involved working with the elderly in a public assistance hospital. I had to take quite a bit of initiative—cooking, playing French Scrabble, helping a woman decorate her room, and even did some oral history-style interviewing.
I'm took Politics as my academic course, and loved that we went to sites in Paris for class. I'm going to McGill next year, and will probably study Political Science."
Chelsea Sandler
Don Mills C.I, Ontario
Politics and History
"It is a daunting thing to fly alone abroad to meet a group of strangers for the first time, yet I felt nothing but welcomed from the very first day by the wonderful staff, the absolutely amazing other students, the city itself.
From morning French to Literature classes spent in a café on Hemingway's own turf, and taking the Metro everywhere, everything was full of adventures and opportunities to learn, to immerse ourselves in the culture and not be, simply, tourists.
When thinking of France and my journey there and back, there is an event which exemplifies what this summer taught me. It was our second day of community service and Carol and I were feeling a bit out of place. The sensation of being new hadn't quite worn off yet. At the Centre Loisirs where we worked, kids often shifted between different sites, meaning they would be here with us one day and gone the next. Thus, that day seemed like the first day all over again. We knew none of the kids and they, in turn, seemed a little wary of us. We ended up weaving bracelets outside with a couple of girls but after a few of my disastrous attempts to make conversation, we were all pretty quiet.
The center had two large, inflatable pools set up only feet from us, where other kids were laughing, splashing, completely soaked and spraying hoses, throwing sponges at the counselors, at Dominique, our supervisor, and at each other.
After a particularly tense hour, Dominique said, 'Kristin and Carol seem a little too dry.' I was fairly sure I had understood her and was trying to translate for Carol when a bucket of water was dumped over my head and Carol was promptly pushed into the pool.
That afternoon—in the midst of a water fight and later, when the kids finally had opened up to us, when they didn't just see us as 'strange Americans' but as friends, when we were dancing barefoot and wet on hot pavement or playing loud and possibly unfairly scored games of ping pong—I felt accepted, not only at my community service site but in France as a whole."
Kristin Drouin
Deerfield Academy, MA
Literature and Writing
"Paris is the first big city I've lived in. It's surprisingly green, the architecture is so beautiful, and history is everywhere. Every day was a new adventure. My community service was amazing. I was working with two other girls from the program at a retirement home. We really loved making these people happy; for them we were 'nos amies americaines.' We had to overcome certain barriers like language and hearing, but we did it with the help of our wonderful animateur.
Between my community service, my Art and Architecture class in French and my French class itself, I've really improved my accent and vocabulary, my speed of understanding, and my fluency.
What kind of person should come to this program? Someone who's open to new experiences and wants to take advantage of the opportunities they're given here.
What else? I love the way the French do fireworks to music."
D'Arcy Wright
Davis Senior High School, CA
Art and Architecture in French
"I'm from a pretty multicultural neighborhood in New Orleans and I go to a good public school. My French teacher found the Service Learning program for me. I had told her I didn't just want to go to France, I wanted to work in France somehow. And I had the perfect job in my community service at a hospital for terminally ill children ages 7-18. Our assignment was to make them happy on a daily basis. The hospital is an amazing place, with everything a child could dream of.
Service Learning attracts all kinds of kids, but we're connected by our desire to do community service—and by French. I was taking AP French, but Katrina interrupted that, so I did a lot of French in Paris. Also a lot of writing. I had five notebooks! My personal one, one with letters for a friend, one for French class, one for my Literature and Writing class, and one for the journal writing we did before dinner. The whole month gave me a lot more than I expected."
Patricia Tsai
Benjamin Franklin High School, LA
Literature and Writing
"I'd taken three years of French, but I'd never been to France. I'd never had to speak French much, and my conversational skills weren't that strong when I arrived. They've improved a ton, especially through the practice I've had at community service. I worked with mostly immigrant kids at a kind of summer camp right outside of Paris, sort of as an 'older sister' figure. The kids helped teach me French, and I was not afraid to make mistakes speaking to them.
I came to Service Learning because I could study Art and Architecture improve my French, and do community service. The program is organized, but it also gives you independence. It puts you right out in the city. At first it was this big foreign place, but I've really got to know it. I liked getting up in the morning and going jogging. I usually went to the Eiffel Tower, and I tried to take a new route each time. Sometimes I'll had a 'tourist day' and visited museums; other times I'll just get off the Métro and explored a new neighborhood or painted in a new park. You have to be willing to take risks."
Kate Balderston '06
Hotchkiss School, CT
Art and Architecture
"My parents found the Service Learning program for me, and I'm glad they did. I've taken French at school, but in Paris I had to learn to really speak the language. It's all around you, especially at community service, where I worked at a summer youth program. We played board games, 'foot' (soccer), and hung out together. I felt like I lived in Paris, not that I was just visiting. We did plenty of visiting of places, but I didn't feel like I was just a tourist. Maybe it's because we lived in a neighborhood and worked. You have to be willing to jump in, to put something of yourself into the program, and you'll get a lot out in return."
Alex Van den Bergh '06
Pingry Academy, NJ
"I'd never been to Europe before, but I'd had a lot of French at school so I wanted to come to France. At first, I was amazed at the way, with a little orientation, we were just thrown into French culture with our Métro passes and our maps—but we all managed. There's a nice balance between freedom and structure at the program. It feels different in that you don't have grades to motivate you, but there are other reasons to learn, n'est-ce pas? In French class we discuss current affairs in France and Europe, we read the newspapers, and sometimes went places. Even my Art and Architecture class was in French. I'm taking AP French Lit. next year but I'll probably do a pre-med course in college.
It was the service aspect of this program that led me to choose it, and I really loved the job I did. I worked along with another student at a youth center just outside Paris with kids from mostly immigrant backgrounds, especially North Africa. We played, talked, and or spent a whole day at the Parc Asterix with them-that was great. I had quite a lot of responsibility.
Students who are willing to be adventurous will get the most out of this program."
Morgan Lyles '06
Westminster Schools, GA
Art and Architecture
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In Summer 2004, Sarah Grausz, Paris Seminar '99, wrote,
"I studied abroad Fall 2003 with the School for International Training (run by World Learning) in the Balkans. I just returned from a month in Bosnia doing freelance writing about the youth movement there, and am now back in LA working as a summer editorial intern for the Food section of the Los Angeles Times. At the end of the summer, I'm headed to an internship in NYC for the fall semester where I'll be working at the United Nations, hopefully in the US Mission."
"I have never had such an enjoyable experience that involved so much learning and exposure to new things. I also cannot think of teachers I have ever enjoyed so much or respected as much as I did the ISS teachers. They made every lesson interesting and stimulating. If only my high school experience could compare.... Thanks again for such unforgettable memories."
Kristin Grant
"After a week or so you treat the Métro simply as a means of transportation,
nothing out of the ordinary; the Eiffel Tower is something you pass by on
the way to work; the exchange at the boulangerie became part of my daily
routine. You make so many connections. By the end of the four weeks, I'd
made something of a friendship with an African immigrant who came to the
soup kitchen run by the Mother Teresa nuns, and he wished me a sad bon
voyage."
Mark Spatt, King and Low-Heywood Thomas School
"The program asks for an attitude of involvement, but the adults help you
make the best of it. You don't move around in a big group, and being with
one or two others asks you to be responsible. My work placement was a real
challenge as we had to make phone appointments with older Parisians and then
go into their apart-ments for ten minute interviews collected for a social
service agency. Sometimes we would start talking and spend a whole hour
after we finished the questionnaire."
Tori Babin, Colorado Academy
"I realized that I was the guide when taking kids on field trips to the
Jardin des Plantes. After a few weeks, I was so comfortable finding my way
around that all sorts of people, local as well as tourists, started asking
me for directions. There were wonderful little things too such as learning
how to shop the stalls in an open air market and coming back to the Foyer
and cooking up a great French meal."
Sarah Grausz, Mercer Island High School
"I loved it.I learned about the culture of France by meeting people in real
life situations. Two weeks of my community service were in a hospital mostly
for Alzheimers patients. Working with them was a mix of great challenge and
great reward. You didn't know if they would remember you, but their smiles
as you listened to their stories made a difference."
Tirzah deCaria, University School, Nashville
Alumni Gallery | Alumni
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Manchester, VT 05254-1212