SSP Travel Courses 2012
	ADVENTURE IN FRANCE All aboard for Paris, the City of Light! Join us for a two-week adventure in France exploring Europe’s most beautiful city, coupled with a week in sunny Provence with its unique Mediterranean flavor and Roman vestiges.    This program is designed to give students a wide variety of experiences to French culture and history. Increased fluency will be gained through language immersion. The Agnes Irwin chaperones engage the students in speaking French, and the home-stay in Nîmes promotes daily conversation in French.  The first four days will be spent in Paris where the group will view the art treasures of many museums (Le Louvre; Le Musée D’Orsay; Le Musée Carnavalet, le Musée Rodin) and visit the artists in Montmartre. Students will ride bicycles on a guided tour of featured landmarks. They will ascend the Eiffel Tower, tour Notre-Dame, stroll the Champs-Elysées, explore many Parisian neighborhoods and attend classes at a French lycée. Next the group boards the high-speed TGV train to Nîmes, where the seven-day home stay with French families will begin. Students will spend evenings and a weekend with their families and come together for day excursions. These include a visit to the Roman city of Nîmes, Avignon and Arles, the Pont du Gard (Roman aqueduct), the walled city of Aigues-Mortes and the medieval fortress and village of les Baux-de-Provence, perched on a cliff. The group will also spend a day in Aix-en-Provence. Students will visit the artist workshop where Cézanne painted and trace the path he took for his views of the Mont-Sainte-Victoire. After a week, students will say goodbye to our families and take the train back to Paris for the final days of this SSP. Guided visits of Versailles and of the colorful Centre Pompidou will expose students to the city’s history as well as its extraordinary and unique architecture. Mme Davis and Mme Molta. Two weeks. Minimum 10, maximum 14 students. Cost $3750 ($600 deposit). Not included: airline baggage fees, two lunches in Paris and personal spending money.     DOMINICAN REPUBLIC OUTREACH Last year in English class, 9th graders read Farming of Bones, a novel set in the Dominican Republic during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. In World History class, they learned about the origins of the uneasy relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This course is an extension of that interdisciplinary effort.   It also offers a developing world service experience. We will live and work in Monte Cristi, a small town in the northwest of the country. This is the sixth SSP to this site and, again, we will be hosted by Outreach 360, (formerly known as Orphanage Outreach.) Outreach360 was originally incorporated in 1995 to assist an orphanage in Monte Cristi. As the Orphanage Outreach volunteer program grew, more volunteer effort was expended on other disadvantaged neighboring communities. The focus is on education—English, literacy, and public health. Our students bring much needed clothing, food and educational supplies. Once there they will be housed on the grounds of the orphanage. Groups will be assigned to teach English in local schools and to do other needed work. Students will experience the bustling market in Dahabon, a town bordering Haiti.   Additional information about Outreach 360 can be found at www.outreach360.org; in particular, see the section entitled Volunteer Guide.   Ms. Mather and another AIS chaperone, 1 week, 2nd week. Minimum 12, maximum 16 students. Cost $1800 ($400 deposit).   HABITAT FOR HUMANITY Habitat for Humanity “brings families and communities in need together with volunteers and resources to build decent, affordable housing.” This two week SSP will focus on various programs to address homelessness both in Philadelphia and in South Carolina. During the first week students will meet at AIS each day and travel by public transportation to organizations that feed homeless Philadelphians and to the West Philadelphia home repair program, The Other Carpenter. During the second week, three faculty chaperones will drive students in two vans to the Habitat site on John’s Island, S.C. The group will live in a Habitat house located near the building site. Participants will be responsible for planning, buying and preparing meals. The construction on various work sites ranges from installing insulation and framing houses to landscape development and digging foundations. This experience enables students to build partnerships with people sharing a common goal, to gain greater awareness of the need for decent and affordable housing and to deepen their commitment to social action. Students will gain lifelong skills of construction, as well as experience the rewards of deeply satisfying collaborative projects. Students must be at least 16 years old. Mrs. Brown, Ms. Stott and an additional AIS chaperone. Two weeks. Minimum 10, maximum 13 students. Cost $675 (deposit $100). IRELAND: ART ON THE FARM This two week SSP takes place in Ireland and is designed for students who are interested in the visual arts. Students will be based at Cow House Studios located on the 200 year old family farm of Rosie O’Gorman in the small village of Rathnure, County Wexford. Rosie O’Gorman and husband Frank Abruzzese will be host the group and will be the primary instructors helping students to develop their skills in drawing, painting, photography and/or media arts. Through a variety of professionally guided tours, classes, workshops, lectures, projects and cultural immersion, this program aims to embrace the creative arts as a catalyst for engaging with the complex history and culture of Ireland. Topics for this interdisciplinary program will include Ancient Irish Culture, Ireland’s great literary arts and achievements, and contemporary culture and politics. Students will also discuss current trends and practices of rural and agrarian life in Ireland and how it they impact the environment. A collaborative workshop with Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School students will consist of a day-long event where students are paired with an Irish student. They will interview each other and then create a drawn, photographed or painted portrait. Throughout the program we will highlight and experience hands-on, the wonderful historical and contemporary artistic achievements, (including literature, theater and film) that Ireland has to offer. In preparation for this program students will read and discuss “Over Nine Waves,” a book of Irish mythology. More information about Cow House Studios can be found on its website: www.cowhousestudios.com. Mrs. Farrow and Ms. Pretz. Sunday, Feb. 19 to Saturday, March 3. Minimum 13, maximum 16 students. Cost $3200 (deposit $600). JAMAICA SERVICE EXPERIENCE This course offers a developing world service and living opportunity in Harmons, Jamaica. Harmons is a remote mountain village of 3,000 people in south central Jamaica, three hours drive from Montego Bay and 45 minutes from Mandeville. Our students will be hosted by Won By One To Jamaica, a 501(c)3 missions organization that has been doing ministry in Harmons, Jamaica since 1989. The organization facilitates groups of high school students, college students, and adults for short-term mission trips throughout the year. When in Harmons, the team will be housed in a secure Great House that was constructed in 2001. Students will work in groups, and, over the course of the week, will construct an entire house for a needy local family. They also will have an opportunity to visit a local elementary school and help a teacher in a classroom. At the end of the week, the group will spend one night in the popular north coast resort city Ocho Rios. Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Herrman, the dance teachers at AIS, are avid service volunteers and have much experience leading student groups to developing countries. This will be Mrs. Morris’ fourth trip to Harmons. Two summers ago, she and Mrs. Herrman taught dance and art to children affected by the hurricane in Haiti. This past summer, they taught dance, art and journaling to children in New Orleans, and last year, they led the first service SSP to Jamaica. Additional information about Won By One can be found on its website: www.wonbyonetojamaica.com. Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Herrman. One week, 2nd week. From Sunday, Feb. 26 to Sunday, March 4. Minimum 18, maximum 22 students. Cost $1,800 ($400 deposit). SPAIN LANGUAGE IMMERSION This is a cultural and language immersion trip to Spain. The focus of the trip will be to expose the participants to the language and diverse cultures that make up the country. Students will explore and learn about the arts, traditions and history of both central and southern Spain. They will experience language both formally and informally in ways that will be critical in their development as language learners. The group will arrive in Madrid and spend two days exploring the city and its surrounding towns. As the capital of Spain, every facet of Spanish culture can be found in its streets, museums, monuments and the people that inhabit it. Madrid will also serve as a springboard into the historical city of Toledo. The group will head to the south of Spain and, with the help of Centro Mundolengua, the students will be assigned a family that will host them for the remainder of the trip. During the day they will attend language and culture classes (they will be offered cinema, art or music workshops for example). Other activities will include a treasure hunt, sightseeing, amusement park or a visit to their Spanish sibling’s school. A day trip to Cordoba will be major highlight of the time in southern Spain. Both Seville and Cordoba offer outstanding examples of Moorish architectural wonders (el Alcazar or Royal Palace in Seville and La Mezquita the mosque in Cordoba). The trip will present extraordinary and potentially life-changing opportunities for students at a crucial age. Throughout, Spanish will be the language spoken to chaperones and guides alike. Click here to view a video featuring highlights of last year's trip! Sra. Fink and Sr. Sargen. Friday, Feb. 17 to Thursday, March 1. Minimum 13, maximum 16 students. Cost $3700.