The World and Hackley, 2016-17

As we returned to school in September, we welcomed Jade Frankland from Woodleigh School and Ellen Coote from Armidale, both fellow Round Square Schools in Australia. Jade entertained Middle School students with her adventures as an amateur pilot, and Ellen made her mark backstage at the fall drama production.

Assistant Head of School Steve Bileca and Allstrom Chair Adrianne Pierce led a group of five intrepid travelers to Switzerland to attend the Round Square International Conference at Aiglon College, where they learned alongside more than 400 fellow students from over 40 countries. The group spent three days in Munich before the conference studying the city’s rich political history and eating as many delicious pastries as possible!

 

October brought 24 8th graders and their chaperones from Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo to Hackley for a brief visit. This annual trip to New York is a wonderful opportunity for our students to engage with their peers and be ambassadors for Hackley.

In November, five 7th grade students and their chaperones came on exchange from Strathcona Tweedsmuir School (STS) in Calgary, Alberta; five Hackley 7th graders accompanied Glenn Hasslinger, Middle School Round Square Coordinator, and Sara Budde to STS in February. This is the second year Hackley and STS have exchanged students and teachers in this mutually enriching program.

The winter months brought Mateo Boudourian to the Hilltop from Belgrano Day School in Argentina. Mateo had visited Hackley with his family a few years earlier and had wanted to exchange here as soon as he was old enough. We were delighted to have him with us. Sofia Mela Romero, an Art teacher who had hosted Spanish teacher Jessica Spates in the summer of 2016, visited Hackley in the winter from BDS to discuss the possibility of a reciprocal language immersion exchange. Federico del Carpio, an administrator from BDS, also spent time with faculty and administrators at Hackley in January, learning about our global education programs.

 

March break was delightfully busy, with Casten trips traveling to Cuba (Vlad Klimenko, Angela Alonso, and Willie Teacher) and Denmark (Peter Sawkins, Katherine Hannon, and Sarah Coble) and language immersion trips to China (Hui Wen, Roy Sheldon, and Tia Donlevy) and France (Katherine Taylor and Danny Lawrence). Travelers experienced Latin jazz and Scandinavian architecture, and they studied the effects of a Communist economy and learned about cutting edge sustainability practices. The immersion trips included time in language classes as well as sightseeing in Paris and to Xian to see the terra cotta warrior tomb.

           

In April, Hackley hosted 103 student and adult delegates for the Americas Region Round Square Middle School Conference, Democracy in the Big Apple. Although this was a regional conference, delegations from Denmark and Japan joined those from Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Canada to make the experience truly international.

Delegates divided their time between exploring aspects of democracy in New York City - visiting the UN, doing community and environmental service, and attending a Broadway show - and returning to campus to engage in lively baraza group discussions led by Hackley Upper School students.

By all accounts, the conference was a tremendous success. A special thanks goes out to all the Hackley families who opened their homes to host our guests, beautifully enacting our school’s iconic invitation to “enter here to be and find a friend.” During that same week, Seth Karpinski, Jessica Spates and five upper school students journeyed to the Round Square Regional Conference hosted by Belgrano Day School in Buenos Aires in April; the group extended its stay in Argentina with an adventurous trip to Patagonia.

 
Springtime also brought Eden Ferguson from Gordonstoun College in Scotland, as well as Babsi Vabaza and Jodi Dovale from Dainfern College in South Africa, on exchange at Hackley. Eden was able to participate in the trip to Cornell with the Model UN team, and Babsi was a farmer for a day with her Biology class. Jodi educated her History class about South Africa, and Jodi and Babsi talked with the Lower School students about their school and their country.

At the beginning of April, we hosted a group of two teachers and eight students from Green Hills Academy in Kigali, Rwanda as a part of our ongoing Rwanda Partnership. Green Hills is also a Round Square school, and Hackley has been connected with GHA and a rural school, Duha Complex School, for 10 years. The group spent time in classes on the Hilltop and also had a tour of New York City, including a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

 
In April, Bettie-Ann Candelora, Department Chair of Performing Arts, and Steele Sternberg, History teacher, attended the annual GEBG (Global Educators’ Benchmarking Group) conference in Palos Verdes, CA, to learn about curricular integration of global education.

Finally, in June, 11 Spanish students will join Spanish teachers Margaret Randazzo and Sara Budde for a language immersion and service program in Ecuador. We look forward to hearing of their adventures over the summer.

 

Stay tuned for stories from RSIC Cape Town in the fall, as well as exchange student from South Africa, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Argentina, and elsewhere next year!