Whether it is how masterfully they instruct class, the way they challenge students to think critically or creatively, or their dedication to thoughtfully advising and mentoring students, teachers are the central source of inspiration and guidance for our students. Most SYAers can identify at least one teacher (and often many) who positively influenced their experience abroad.

Faculty support was a key initiative of The Campaign for SYA, which included investing in faculty professional development. Because of early gifts to the campaign, we were grateful to host SYA’s first-ever school-wide curricular planning conference during the summer of 2018 at our campus in Zaragoza, Spain and the second in 2019 at our campus in Viterbo, Italy. (See campaign story on the Conference on Teaching and Learning Abroad.)

The next opportunity presented itself when, in the 2020–2021 school year, SYA teachers were eager to work but there were no students abroad because of the global pandemic. Time — a valuable resource that is often scarce during the school year — was in abundance. This was the golden opportunity to virtually convene faculty from all campuses and engage them in training about pedagogical best practices. A generous donation to The Campaign for SYA allowed us to bring faculty out of furlough for this important cross-campus professional development. From December 2020 to June 2021 faculty worked on several initiatives including workshops focused on Understanding by Design (UbD), language learning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Teachers had the opportunity to work across campuses by discipline (e.g., language instruction, science, English) to create effective class modules using the methodology of UbD. In doing this exercise, they focused on alignment between the final assessment of a module and what is happening in class day to day. In other words, they identified the skillsets they wanted students to have by the end of the class (e.g., critical and creative thinking, intercultural competence, language proficiency, independence and interdependence) and designed each lesson to increase the likelihood of achieving those outcomes.

The UbD work also included a session with Jay McTighe, one of the creators of UbD, and sessions with one of his associates who provided feedback on the modules that teachers created in teams. The faculty teams also completed a multi-session workshop with a consultant from ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) to learn more about proficiency-based language learning and how to differentiate within the classroom.

Later in the spring, each campus participated in DEI training — in France with Aurelia Décordé-Gonzales, the founder of the association Déconstruire, who provided faculty training and helped create a sensitivity guide for host families. In Italy and Spain, the training was provided by Rosetta Lee, a nationally recognized facilitator in the U.S. who has worked with some of SYA’s member schools. Rosetta conducted trainings on intercultural competency and cross-cultural communication with faculty, and then returned in the fall to lead another session on cross-cultural communication for students, and Cultural Competency: What Leaders Need to Know for SYA’s trustees.

On behalf of all our teachers, students, trustees and staff, thank you to everyone who made a gift to The Campaign for SYA for making these important professional opportunities possible!