Summer

During this five-week summer study abroad program adventure, students will touch down in Paris — and then travel to the Loire Valley, where they will have a three-day orientation. From there the group will travel to the school in Rennes where host families will welcome students.

For the next four weeks, mornings will be dedicated to level-appropriate French classes. Afternoons will be filled with local activities and trips to places like Mont Saint-Michel, Saint Malo and Normandy. Other activities include kayaking, rope courses, art lessons and cooking classes. Evenings and weekends will be spent in the comfort of their host family's home where students will learn more about the French language and culture than they ever could in the classroom.

The final week of the program is a group trip to Paris where students will discover the famous museums and monuments. 

Daily Schedule (example)

We do not have a formal language pledge, but we encourage you to speak French whenever you are in school so that you can take full advantage of your time here.

In the afternoons, all students participate in planned extracurricular activities and field trips that range from outdoor excursions to cultural experiences. On occasion, host siblings will be invited to participate.

You are expected to be home in the late afternoon during the week and spend time with your host family. The weekends are also considered "closed," ensuring you spend time with your host family and host siblings.

Program fee for SYA France Summer 2026: $9,750

The summer fee is inclusive of tuition, homestay, meals, excursions and health insurance. Not included are round-trip airfare, personal expenses such as travel insurance and spending money. Please note, there is no financial aid available for the SYA Summer programs.   

SYA France Summer reserves the right to cancel a summer program if minimum enrollment is not met by March 1, 2026. In the event of cancellation, all deposits will be refunded.

Departure

We organize a chaperoned flight from Boston to Paris. This chaperoned flight is optional; students are not required, but are encouraged, to be on this flight. If students do not fly over on this chaperoned flight, but rather take a different flight, they must still arrive at the CDG airport at the group meeting time and location (date/time/location to be in provided after acceptance).

After arriving in Paris, the group will board a chartered bus and travel to the orientation spot in the Loire valley. After a two-day orientation, the group will then travel by bus to Rennes to meet their host families.

Please note that flights depart the day before the program starts abroad.

Students who are accepted to the program will receive details about the flight and all other arrival options.

Lynée has been working for SYA France in Rennes for five years. During the school year, she teaches English and acts as the test center coordinator and college liaison. Lynée has a PhD in inquiry-based education with a focus on intercultural learning. She has extensive experience working with high school students both abroad and in the U.S.  She has spent several summers at Phillips Andover Academy working as a lead teacher and an academic coordinator. In Rennes, Lynée enjoys spending time at a local café and taking boxing classes.

The SYA Summer Spain program provides a five-week intensive immersion experience which includes a homestay with a local family, 60 hours of class time (45 in the classroom and 15 hours of experiential learning), daily cultural and extracurricular activities and excursions to two of Spain’s most beautiful cities, Toledo and Oviedo.

Students will arrive in Madrid and go on a short, two-day orientation trip to Toledo to get to know each other better. After orientation, students will then take a bus to Zaragoza and meet their host families (who will be in touch about two weeks prior to arrival).

Class time is divided into two sections: Spanish Language and Spanish Culture & Current Events. Classes are conducted entirely in Spanish and the focus is on local language and culture. While Spain serves as a living classroom for our students, teachers make connections with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world both linguistically and culturally and encourage students to do the same. Our summer classes are taught by experienced master teachers in Spanish and class size is small. When students arrive in Zaragoza, they will sign a language and rules pledge: at school and during the activities outdoors, they are required to speak in Spanish!

Types of activities available to the students are cooking, art and dance classes, as well as research and discovery projects throughout the city that require students to use their Spanish language skills. Trips for hands-on learning are also a big part of the experience.

In and out of the class, students have ample opportunities to demonstrate their proficiency in written and spoken communication. Teamwork, as well as creativity, is encouraged throughout the program and are two of the key components of the iBook project, a cooperative, multimedia project based on a topic of each student's choice.

At the end of the course, a global evaluation is done for each student based on their performance in all areas of the course, including their use of Spanish, their level of participation in classes, activities, cultural visits and life with their host family.

In the final days of the program, we have a group trip to Oviedo and Gijon visiting the Old City, coal mines, museums and exploring the beauty of northern Spain, including the Cantabrian sea.

Daily Schedule (example)

On Fridays their after school activities, students go directly home in order to spend a “closed weekend” with their host family. In order to maximize the linguistic and cultural immersion, students are not allowed to meet other American students during the weekend .

Program fee for SYA Summer: Spain 2025: $9,750

The summer fee is inclusive of tuition, homestay, meals, excursions and health insurance. Not included are: round-trip airfare, personal expenses such as visa fees, travel insurance and spending money. Please note, there is no financial aid available for the SYA Summer programs.   

We reserve the right to cancel a summer program if minimum enrollment is not met by March 1, 2026. In the event of cancellation, all deposits will be refunded.

We organize a chaperoned flight from Boston to Madrid.  This chaperoned flight is optional but highly recommended.  Students are free to arrive in Madrid any way they want, as long as they arrive at the Madrid airport at the group meeting time and location (date/time/location to be in provided after acceptance).

After arriving in Madrid, the group will board a chartered bus and depart for the orientation in Toledo. After a two-day orientation, the group will then travel by bus to Zaragoza to meet their host families.

Please note that flights depart the day before the program starts abroad.

Students who are accepted to the program will receive details about the group flight and all other arrival options.

Elena Schupp-Summer Program Coordinator and Host family Coordinator

A Native of Zaragoza, Elena holds a BA and MS in Business Management and a Spanish Teacher certification from South Carolina.  She has been a High School Spanish teacher for 17 years.