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Learning Opportunities Beyond Our Building​

2023-24 Journeys

Costa Rica
​French Exchange
​Japan Exchange Program

Applications

Financial Assistance
P​lease not that determinations made by PSB likely will not correspond to the amount awarded for these optional/extra-curricular. 
Past Experiences
Living History Trip 2023
​Italy 2023​
Costa Rica

​Mexico
France
China
Japan
Panama: Floating Doctors
Sojourn to the Past
Spain
Tanzania
​
Global Health Conferences
Denmark: Women Deliver Conference
Berlin: World Health Summit
London, Women Leaders in Global Health
Ljubljana, European Public Health Conf.
​London, Global Health Film Festival
Coimbra
Montréal

More Information: 
The China Exchange

2023-2024

French Language Exchange

Trip ​Dates: Hosting October 7-19 2023;Travel February 8-23, 2024

Who can apply: The trip is open to Juniors and Seniors enrolled in a French class. The trip is limited to 27 students. 
Description: Brookline High School partners with Lycée Chevrollier in Angers, France for two-way language exchange. Students host a student for two weeks in October, then travel to France in February. While in France, students will observe high school classes, participate in local field trips in Angers and the Loire Valley, and end the trip with a sightseeing tour of Normandy and Paris. 
​
Date to apply by: Applicants were selected in May 2023. 

Costa Rica Spanish Trip

Trip Dates: Feb. 18-29, 2024

Who can apply = juniors and seniors CURRENTLY ENROLLED in a BHS Spanish class 

Description= Spend 11 days immersing yourself in the tico culture of Costa Rica while advancing and improving your Spanish! Students will spend 4-5 hours per day in small group language classes at CPI Language School in Playa Flamingo as well doing community service and other cultural activities. All students will stay in homestays with Costa Rican families, and we will spend the weekend in Monteverde exploring the Costa Rican rainforest and volcanic region. 

Application = Reach out to Profe Whitehead, Profe Fuertes or Profe Cruz-López for application details
Deadline to apply is Sep 30.

Japan Exchange Program

Trip dates: April 6-April 19, 2024

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The Brookline High Japanese program is pleased to inform you about our sister-school relationship with Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School in Kyoto, Japan. We plan to visit this school and travel in Japan in April of 2024. In exchange, we will host students at BHS from KGN from March 22-30, 2025.
Travel in Japan will take place April 6-April 19, 2024 and include travel to Tokyo, Kamakura, the Shirakawa-go/Gokayama area, and a one-week host school and homestay visit in Kyoto. In return, BHS will host Japanese students and their chaperones during the 2024-2025 school year. If you are selected to participate (and are not a graduating senior), we hope that you will be able to host a student from Japan in March of the next school year, or help us find an alternate family to host.
The goals of this program are to speak and interact in Japanese in an authentic setting, to build a dialog with Japanese students about US-Japan relations and topics of mutual interest, to experience life as a member of a Japanese family, to visit a Japanese school, to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and Shirakawa-go, to eat food typical of these regions, and to expand students’ knowledge of Japanese culture.

Application
via Google form by October 18, 2023 by 3:00 pm. BHS Japanese teachers Fukiko Shapiro and Rachel​ Eio

Past Exchanges & Programs

2022-2023

Italy Trip

Trip Dates: April 13-22, 2023
Trip open to juniors & seniors language students. Tour Rome, Siena, Vatican City, Pompeii, & Sorrento.
​
Applications are due by  Friday 11/11 @ 2:15  

Living History Trip

Trip Dates: April vacation 2023
Explore Civil Rights history throughout the 1950s and 1960s in
 Memphis TN, Mississippi, and Alabama. We will be meeting with Civil Rights activists from the era.

Applications are due by December 15th emailed to Marcie Miller or to Mark Wheeler.

2019-2020

Japan Exchange

Dates: This trip has been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. 
For More information contact: Rachel Eio and visit BHS Japan exchange website

​The goals of this program are to speak and interact in Japanese, to build a dialog with Japanese students about US-Japan relations and topics of mutual interest, to experience life as a member of a Japanese family, to visit a Japanese school, to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and Shikoku, to eat food typical of these regions, and to expand students’ knowledge of Japanese culture. 

Student application (due November 7th at 3:00 pm) can be found at: https://forms.gle/B7wpz8LHyrqgjCti9

Civil Rights Trip to Georgia, Alabama

Trip Dates: TRIP POSTPONED INDEFINITELY
Application link You must use your @brooklinek12.org account. 
The application for financial assistance is due at the same time as the application.  
​
​Program Description:   
​
(You can find more detailed information such as itinerary, cost, etc. here.)
A group of approximately 20 Brookline High School students will travel in February to Atlanta, GA and several sites in Alabama to learn about the struggle for Civil Rights in the context of American history with an emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s. Visits will include the Rosa Parks Museum, National Voting Rights Museum, the Edumund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (National Lynching Memorial) in Birmingham. 
Participants are expected to attend pre-departure X-block sessions between November and February. Some light reading and listening to podcast will be assigned. 
For more information contact: Gary Shiffman & Marcie Miller

Costa Rica 2019-2020 (Spanish Language Trip)

​Trip Dates: February 16-25, 2020
Application link. Due October 23, 3pm *You must use your @brooklinek12.org account to log in!
The application for financial assistance is due at the same time as the application.  
​
​Program Description: Viaje a Guanacaste, Costa Rica  
​
(You can find more detailed information here)
The Brookline High School Costa Rica Trip offers students the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish language and Costa Rican culture through:
Intensive Spanish language classes at CPI (Centro Panamericano de Idiomas) in Playa Flamingo
Educational Exchange at the La Paz Community School in Brasilito
Homestay with Costa Rican families
Exploring the Guanacaste coast 

For more information contact: Kristina Tobey & Liz Gorman

French Exchange Program 2019-2020

Dates: Hosting Oct. 5-Oct. 16, 2019 ; Traveling Feb. 6-21, 2020

Application: Link Due May 5, 2019 *Students must use their @psbma.org account to log in!
You'll want to fill in the application in one sitting (budget ~ 1 hr), so in order to preview and prepare essays questions ahead of time, click here
Parent Application: Link

Brookline High School offers a full home-and-away exchange experience for roughly 25 students. First, we welcome our host brothers and sisters for two weeks in October. They visit our classes and take part in local excursions, and learn the local culture while staying with their BHS families. Secondly, those same BHS students will travel to France for two weeks in February (including vacation week) to continue the relationship. We travel through the Loire Valley castles on our way to see our brothers and sisters in Angers, France. Similarly, we visit their classes and take part in local visits, getting to know the culture of France. Next, we spend 3 days exploring Normandy (Mt. St. Michel, D-Day Beaches, Bayeux Tapestry, etc.). We will conclude the trip with 4 days of sight-seeing in Paris. 

At this time, the exchange runs every two years. The program is open to Juniors and Seniors enrolled in a French class. 

For More Information Contact: Andrew Kimball, Jen Martin, Betsy Davis or Laura Gurry

2018-2019

Tanzania, Summer 2019

​Trip Dates: July 25-August 6, 2019

Program Description: BHS is going to East Africa! This is a two-week cultural immersion trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania this July-August 2019. Students will be learning about the local history and culture of the island, including the slave trade history, economics of a developing nation in East Africa, and educational access. We will be  meeting with local organizations, and learning about life on this island in the Indian Ocean. 

For More information contact: Joanne Burke, Stephanie Hunt, Mark Wheeler

Spa​in 2019 

​Trip Dates: April 5-19, 2019

Program Description: Two weeks of Spanish language study in Salamanca, Spain!  First we'll fly to Madrid and spend the weekend exploring museums and cultural sites, including Toledo. Then we travel to Salamanca, an ancient Celtic city in northwestern Spain which home to the oldest university in Spain (founded 1218).  It's also one of Spain's most diverse and cosmopolitan cities with a large population of international students.  Students will spend two weeks living with host families and studying Spanish at the Letra Hispánica institute. Additional excursions include Asturias, León, and Extremadura.
Follow our trip at twitter.com/BHSinSalamanca

For More information contact: Marta Fuertes, Andrew Kimball, Astrid Allen

Spain Trip 2019 Twitter feed
Spain Trip Blog 2015


Panama 2019
Trip Dates: April 8-21, 2019

Program Description: Sixteen students and two BHS faculty members will travel over April vacation to the Panamanian coastal jungle (Bocas del Toro region) to volunteer with "Floating Doctors", a non-profit that delivers healthcare to rural populations, including indigenous peoples. Students will help with intake and rudimentary healthcare delivery tasks like taking patients' temperatures. Additional excursions will include sea kayaking, snorkeling, nature walks and visiting Sloth Island. Knowledge of Spanish is helpful, but not required. For more information, you can click on the Floating Doctors' immersion program brochure.

To access the information presented at the recruitment session on 10/25, click here. 

For More information contact: Melanee Alexander, Megan Day


Japan 2017-18

Dates: April 7-20, 2018
For More information contact: Rachel Eio and visit BHS Japan exchange website
The goals of this program are to speak and interact in Japanese, to build a dialog with Japanese students about US-Japan relations and topics of mutual interest, to experience life as a member of a Japanese family, to visit a Japanese school, to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, to eat food typical of these regions, and to expand students’ knowledge of Japanese culture. 

French Exchange 2017-2018 with Lycée Chevrollier, Angers (Loire Valley)

For More Information Contact: Andrew Kimball Jen Martin and Laura Gurry
Dates: Hosting Oct. 7 - Oct. 18, 2017 ; Traveling Feb. 15 - March 3, 2018
Application: Link Due May 5, 2017 *You must use your @psbma.org account to log in!
You'll want to fill in the application in one sitting (budget ~ 1 hr), so in order to preview and prepare essays questions ahead of time, click here
For those requesting financial aid, kindly download, print and fill out this form (Link) and hand in to Mr. Butchart in Room 317C. Due May 5, 2017.

Brookline High School offers a full home-and-away exchange experience for roughly 25 students. First, we welcome our host brothers and sisters for two weeks in October. They visit our classes and take part in local excursions, and learn the local culture while staying with their BHS families. Secondly, those same BHS students will travel to France for two weeks in February including vacation week to continue the relationship. We travel through the Loire Valley castles on our way to see our brothers and sisters in Angers, France. Similarly, we visit their classes and take part in local visits, getting to know the culture of France. Next, we spend two days exploring Normandy (Mt. St. Michel, D-Day Beaches, Bayeux Tapestry, etc.). We will conclude the trip with five days of sight-seeing in Paris. 

At this time, the exchange runs every two years. The program is open to Juniors and Seniors enrolled in a French class. 

2018 Twitter Feed
2016 Exchange Blog
2014 Exchange Blog
2012 Exchange Blog


México 2016

Mexico Trip Information 
Trip Dates: Saturday Feb. 13- 27, 2016
For More information contact: Pedro Mendez; 617-713-5089

Program Description:
The Brookline High School trip to Mexico will offer students the unique opportunity of studying Spanish intensively at an internationally known language institute in Cuernavaca, as well living with a Mexican family.  During the two-week trip, students will also participate in many exciting field trips, including visits to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan, the colonial city of Taxco, the Indian market village of Tepoztlan, and the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.  Additional features of the program at the Cuahnahauc Institute include:
  • Classes taught at all levels
  • Class size limited to five students per teacher
  • Six hours in the classroom daily; Spanish is the exclusive language of instruction
  • All instructors are native speakers who have received special training in teaching Spanish intensively
  • Free workshops in art and dance
  • The opportunity to take advantage of extra conversation hours with Mexican students
  • Classroom materials, the family home-stay, organized activities, and seminars all contribute to the integration of the language with its cultural context​
2016 Mexico Trip Blog
2014 Mexico Trip Blog

Sojourn 2016
In the pre- dawn hours of Friday morning, ten Warriors departed Logan Airport for Little Rock, AR. Along with their chaperones, BHS teachers Nick Rothstein and Lizzy Buhl, they are participating in Sojourn to the Past, a week-long program dedicated to educating and empowering students by traveling to crucial Civil Rights locations. After Little Rock, students will travel to Jackson, Selma, Hattiesburg, and Birmingham where they will hear from prominent Civil Rights leaders. Sojourn to the Past has been presented with the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities National Youth Program Award. This has been a transformative experience for BHS students in past years, and this year promises no less.
Please follow nightly updates of their journey on Twitter at @bhssojourn

Japan 2016

April 9-22, 2016
For More information contact: Rachel Eio and visit BHS Japan exchange website
The goals of this program are to speak and interact in Japanese, to build a dialog with Japanese students about US-Japan relations and topics of mutual interest, to experience life as a member of a Japanese family, to visit a Japanese school, to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, to eat food typical of these regions, and to expand students’ knowledge of Japanese culture. 

Summer Program 2014: Exchange includes: travel to the Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto areas, and a one-week host school and home stay visit in Kyoto. In return, BHS will host Japanese students and their chaperones during the 2014-2015 school year.
2014 Trip Blog

2012: Brookline High School students and teachers were selected to participate in a nearly fully-funded two- week study tour of Japan July, 2012. This program, called "Kizuna," means "bonds of friendship."  Students from Japan visited BHS in March 2013. To learn more, please see the Kizuna website.

Italy 2015

Trip Dates: April 17- 25, 2015
Blog and Twitter @BHSItaly2015
For More information contact: Eli Williams

Brookline High School offers an opportunity for 25 Junior and Senior Latin students to travel to Italy for a week.  This trip will give students an opportunity to examine the classical world of ancient Rome amidst the cities of modern Italy. 

This trip will offer Latin students a greater context for the language and give them an opportunity to engage the language in its natural setting: reading texts in the cities where Vergil, Cicero, and Caesar wrote them; reading Latin inscriptions and graffiti throughout the city; and examining the places, i.e. Coliseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, etc., that were such prominent aspects of the Roman life. Similarly, students will have the opportunity to see the relatively intact cities of Pompeii and Ostia and get a real sense of what life would have been like in the Roman Empire.

In addition to recreating the past, students will be exposed to aspects of Renaissance and Modern Italy- eating Italian cuisine, seeing the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel, and experiencing the modern Italian cities of Rome and Sorrento. 

Trip highlights include:
  • Walking amidst the preserved ancient city of Pompeii
  • Climbing atop the Villa Jovis, the imperial residence of Emperor Tiberius, high atop the Island of Capri
  • Taking a cooking class on the island of Capri
  • Attending gladiator school and training like a gladiator
  • Visiting the Greek temples at Paestum
  • Driving around the Amalfi coast, location of many Roman summer homes
  • Visiting the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Vatican and Capitoline Museums
  • Visiting modern Italian sights like Piazza Navona and the Spanish steps
  • Going underground into the Catacombs of Rome

Spain 2015

Trip Dates: Feb. 14- 28, 2015
Spain Trip Information 

France (Lycée Chevrolliers, Angers) 2015-16

Dates: February 13- March 4, 2016
French Trip Information
2014 Exchange Blog
2012 Exchange Blog
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