Total Immersion

Thoughts race through his head: That water looks really, really deep. Cold, too. What if I go under? Will I come back up? Will somebody rescue me if I start to drown? What was I thinking?

 

Then comes a smiling “you can do it” from the side, then a nervous laugh, then a leap of faith, then a splash, then a feeling of accomplishment and exultation. And by the way, when can I go again?

 

This past fall, Collegiate sophomore Jensen Richardson made his own leap of faith into a world well outside his comfort zone of school and home.

 

Inspired by his experience with the 8th Grade French exchange two years earlier, he spent three-and-a-half months studying at the Saint-Denis International School located in Loches in the Loire Valley of France.

 

“Oh, yeah,” he said in response to the kid-on-the-diving-board-staring-into-the-abyss analogy. “I jumped right into the deep end.”

 

About a year ago, Jensen began considering the real possibility of an extended study experience abroad, and after he and his family did their due diligence, they made the let’s-go-for-it decision this past June.

 

“I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to do it,” he said, “but once I said yes, I was committed. I had doubts, but I was not going to change my mind.”

 

During his stay, he boarded at Saint-Denis during the week and spent weekends with the family of his host, Baptiste Roussel, in Chartes.

 

Jensen’s family hosted Baptiste a year ago. Baptiste spent six weeks at Collegiate this past fall. Otherwise, Jensen found very few familiar faces at his adopted school.

 

“I had to make friends,” he said. “I had to seek out teachers. I didn’t really understand everything they were doing, so I had to teach myself a lot. When I got there, I wasn’t taking classes in French as a foreign language. I was taking regular classes in French. I could get by in conversation, but I had to get things repeated quite a bit. By the time I left, my French was a lot better.”

 

At Saint-Denis, he took French, history, English, math, physics, chemistry, physical education and religion. During a two-week fall holiday, he and the Roussels visited numerous landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and Normandy.

 

As he’s reflected on his time away, Jensen has seen nothing but positives.

 

“My French improved a lot, which was very helpful,” he said. “I was away from my family. There was almost no overlap between there and here except email contact. Everything was completely new, and I feel like it gave me a different world perspective. I’ve seen how other people live. I’m less judgmental.”

 

Would he go again?

 

“Oh, yeah,” he replied without hesitation. “I made so many friends. I want to see them again.”

 

The past four weeks, eight Saint-Denis students (with the guidance of their teacher Matthieu Mossetig) have immersed themselves into the life of Collegiate and toured historical sites in Virginia and in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, 10 Collegiate 8th Graders, Middle School French teacher Monica Johnston and sophomore Anne-Claire Quindoza will accompany them home.

 

Most of the Collegiate contingent will return after an 11-day stay. Anne-Claire, who participated in the exchange two years ago, will remain for three months.

 

“I love learning here (at Collegiate),” Anne-Claire said, “but I realize there’s only so much I can learn in the classroom. Going to France is a great opportunity. I’ve never been away from home for more than two weeks, so I really don’t know how it’s going to be, but it’ll be OK. Taking classes in French rather than English is kind of scary, but that’s the best way to learn the language. The less help I have, the more I’ll learn on my own. That’s what I’m hoping.”

 

Monica and her colleague Maria Benson have coordinated the exchange for the past six years.

 

Why, I asked Monica, are kids willing to leave the safety and security of home and Collegiate and venture into unfamiliar territory?

 

“If you asked them,” she responded, “I think they’d tell you that it’s because it’s fun or they’re curious to learn more about a different country and culture. Ultimately, it is fun, and they do learn a lot, but they discover so much more. They grow in empathy and realize that the world is a big place and, yes, we have differences, but we also have shared problems.”

 

Monica has walked in the shoes of those peering into uncharted waters. The summer before her freshman year in high school, she spent a month in Germany with a great aunt who spoke no English.

 

“I was absolutely out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I became empowered just navigating the country and culture on my own as a 13-year-old student.”

 

The next summer, she traveled to Spain.

 

“Stayed with a family I had never met and spoke very little English,” she said. “Had a similar experience with the Spanish language and culture.”

 

So what attributes, I asked, must a youngster have to make this leap of faith?

 

“They have to be willing to take a risk,” she responded. “Students are very familiar with their environment here. There’s relative predictability with their day-to-day life. When they go abroad, they don’t know what to expect. They have to navigate new experiences and persevere as they navigate those experiences. They grow so much just hearing the language and using the language, but there’s so much other growth that happens. They have to problem-solve day to day. They have to trouble-shoot from within and figure out how to work through difficult situations. By doing that, they become empowered.”

         -- Weldon Bradshaw