When students are intentionally sent out of the classroom (and their comfort zone) and into the local community, they develop key skills and take increased ownership of their education. In addition to engaging with their host families, taking educational excursions and participating in extracurricular activities, fieldwork challenges students to push themselves further. There's no better time to start this than on the first day of school. 

At each campus, our faculty develop and implement fieldwork activities which happen on a weekly basis throughout the year, starting locally and with minimal teacher support. As the year progresses, students have more independence and geographic range to complete their tasks. The goal is for students to feel confident and at home within their communities abroad. And it starts with a map to navigate their new communities. 

Though similar in scope, the Immersion Unit at each SYA campus has a flavor all its own. Students have embraced numerous novel experiences during the week of immersion, trying to use their language skills as much as possible and navigating gracefully the challenges that they have found along the way. Share in their journey through the campus updates below. Perhaps it will take you back to your early days at SYA when you were finding your footing in shoes that didn't quite fit yet.

SYA France

After spending the first weekend with their host families, students began their Immersion and Orientation Unit. They were excited to get to know each other and the team at school. Kicking off the unit was a school-wide assembly, almost entirely in French.

Immersion Unit activities focused on navigation, the homestay and giving students a wide range of tools to start using French.  After enjoying their first lunch with French peers at  le lycée Jean Macé, students began their experiential learning throuh a “parcours” in the city, without their phones. There were many challenges but also many small victories such as speaking French with locals to find their way or using their transit pass for the first time to get back to school! 

A tradition at SYA France is the first visit to Mont-Saint-Michel. The crossing of the bay is often one of the most memorable experiences and this year was no exception as the abbey is celebrating its 1,000th year. 

Rounding out the first week of exploration was a tour of the Italian mosiacs found throughout Rennes. 

SYA Italy

Our students arrive in Viterbo in time to participate in the annual Festa di Santa Rosa, the festival of the city’s patron saint. Thousands flock to see one hundred facchini, or strongmen, carry a 90-foot tall, four-ton macchina – an obelisk-shaped statue – of the Santa Rosa through the winding streets of the city. The procession brings people from all over and visiting dignitaries have included foreign prime ministers and popes. Watch this video of the procession.

After spending the festival weekend with their host families, students jumped into the Immersion Unit, including literal orientation activities to become more familiar with navigating an authentically medieval urban planned city center as well as crucial aspects of Italian language and culture. After exploring the town,  students created maps to show their interpretation of the city center, which will be presented in class ... in Italian.  Exploring outside the walled city, campus was "moved" to Terracina and Sperlonga, where they saw hellenistic sculptures at the museum and the grotto scene of Polyphemus and Ulysses.

The visit to the Abbey of Fossanova was the perfect backdrop to "quiet time" where students wrote letters to themselves that they'll open at the end of their school year.

The Immersion Unit ended this week with a host family picnic and students are now attending regularly scheduled classes. 

SYA Spain

After host families accompanied students to school on the first day, a series of games and activities to get to know each other while practicing Spanish helped students prepare for some of the practical aspects of life in Spain, including how to use phones and bus cards. Then it was time to get to know the school's neighborhood.  Navigating the city with just a map was a new activity for most, but rewarding for all. A lunch at the local high school was well deserved. 

A closed weekend with host families gave students the chance for deeper bonding, settling into their new routine and acclimating to life in Zaz. The first week provided preparation for continued fieldwork and the first school trip. 

SYA Spain finished its Immersion Unit with the traditional excursion to the Guara National Park called Alquézar. There they hiked the canyon of the Vero River and visited the magnificent Abrigos de Mallata, where they were able to view the cave paintings that date from the Neolithic Period, and the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria. This trip was a wonderful opportunity for faculty and students to continue to get to know each other and to build the SYA community during this transformative period.