Study Away

List of 5 items.

• WHY STUDY AWAY WITH POLY?

  Our Vision for the Benefits of Study Away

  1. Serve
  
  Link your academic learning about a region with purposeful community-based service and become a better informed and more engaged global citizen. By completing service activities that integrate reflection and experiential learning, you will better understand and participate in the cultural, societal and ecological systems, and processes of the region you are visiting.
  
  2. Gain a New Perspective
  
  Trips and exchanges can be transformational experiences resulting in new perspectives on our country and the world. By living with a host family, meeting new international friends, attending foreign school, and exploring a country’s sites and history, studying away can be one of the best ways for students to understand today’s social, political, and economic issues.
  
  3. Explore the World in High School
  
  High school is a critical time for teenagers to start thinking about major academic and professional decisions. If you are open and receptive, studying away in high school can provide new opportunities to develop skills and profoundly impact future decisions during such formative years.
  
  4. Learn a New Language
  
  High school is a perfect time to study a new language (it gets harder as you get older). Even if a student has little or no previous exposure to their host country’s language, immersion is one of the quickest and most effective ways to learn another language. Aside from competitive advantage in college applications and jobs, a new language helps students truly communicate and connect with other cultures.
  
  5. Embark on an Adventure of a Lifetime
  
  “Exciting. Rewarding. Memorable.” These are words Poly students have used to describe their time abroad. Each experience, however, will depend on what you want to get out of it. The more open and flexible you are, the more you will learn and gain from your program.
  
  6. Stand Out on College Applications
  
  With increasingly competitive college admission panels, an experience abroad makes any applicant stand out. College admission departments often express how cultural immersion can be more valuable than one more AP course or extracurricular activity. Universities want their campuses to thrive with students valuing cross-cultural experience.
  
  7. Bond with peers and faculty while having fun!

• American South

  Spring 2019, for Grades 11 and 12 (Dates TBD)
  
  

  
  Ms. Hershkovitz (History) and Ms. Moslander (History) invite you to join them on a tour of highlights of the American South, during which you will explore key events of the Civil Rights Movement where they occurred. In addition to walking, literally, in the steps of activists like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Lewis, you will explore how the region has memorialized the Movement’s successes and will meet with advocacy groups and historians in an effort to understand its unfinished work. Designed to extend the curricula in Poly’s African-American History and AP U.S. Government and Politics courses, this trip is open to seniors and juniors who seek to experience the American South firsthand, in the company of fellow Poly travelers.

  
  Application procedures forthcoming.

• Argentina

  View trip summary and application procedures.
  

  The World Languages Department is thrilled to offer a Spanish Language Trip to Argentina during spring break 2019. In March, Poly Prep students will have the opportunity to explore a country widely known for its cultural diversity, amazing gastronomy, and rich natural settings.

  Our trip will explore three Argentinean destinations. The first stop will be a four day visit to the cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires, known as The Paris of South America. Next we will discover the greatness of the subtropical Iguazú Waterfalls - the biggest in the world - from both the Argentine and the Brazilian side. Finally, we will travel to the southernmost area of the Americas in Patagonia and hike the glaciers. We will engage in cross-cultural experiences and conversations.

• Navajo Nation (Arizona)

  March 16-25, 2019, Grades 9 to 12
  
  

  View trip summary and application procedures.

   

  Join Mr. Miller (History) in Arizona for a cross-cultural travel and service opportunity on America’s largest territorial Indian reservation in the United States.   On this 10-day trip, Poly students will visit the Navajo Nation where they will learn about Navajo life and culture, work on a community-led service project, and explore the unrivaled beauty of the surrounding area.

   

• Yellowstone National Park

  March 16-24, 2019, Grades 7 to 9

   

  View trip summary and application procedures.
  
  

  Join Ms. Van Ryn (Science) and Ms. Aponte (Science) over Spring Break 2019 for the Yellowstone Ecology program, a science research and service learning opportunity. Activities on this trip include working with the National Park Service to research big mammals.  Participants will track bison and elk using telemetry equipment (on snowshoes if weather permits!), collect data on movement of several big mammal species, observe wolves, explore steam vents and geysers, and learn about sustainable wildlife management. Chaperones and ecoguides will provide context and meaning to the experiences to maintain a positive and forward looking attitude and to gain understanding about cultural context as well as wildlife ecology. The trip will be organized and led by the professional expedition company, Ecology Project International (EPI), and will include guides who have been trained in wilderness first aid.