Meeting+Minutes+11-21

__ARC Global Committee __

11/21/11

12 PM-3 PM

-Susan Kearney: provided overview so far and timeline, reminding us that we're getting much closer to the January "full report" meeting.

-Emily Mawhinney: let's all report back on our individual/pair research: Service Learning in MS, International Center, International Exchanges, International Boarders, Model UN.

-Emily Mawhinney: I'll start with Model UN. We're going to China in March, and the school is helping provide some funding. Based on this, perhaps we could do one of these yearly. Model UN at William & Mary this past weekend was good.

-John Thorpe: how much per kid?

-Emily Mawhinney: $2,000 each. 5-8 days. This is great that the school has been very supportive. I would LOVE to see a Model UN group start in the MS so guys come to the US more prepared. Emily then provided background on what Model UN is (essentially a simulated UN meeting, with committees, etc.).

-Susan Kearney: is this something that you apply to get into at SP?

-Emily Mawhinney: in the past, no, but now there is. This year I have 29 kids, and we'll probably have to have an application process in the future, as well as a budget.

-Susan Kearney: is Model UN seen as a positive for college admissions?

-John Thorpe: it won't make or break you, but it's a positive. (This was affirmed by others).

-Emily Mawhinney: the program is growing. We need a bigger budget, because the travel costs more than some of our guys can afford.

-John Thorpe: I had a conversation with people in China, and those folks were interested in finding exchange locations for Chinese students here; however, because we can't provide accommodations, we lose them to other schools. There are many, many wealthy people from around the world who want their kids educated in America, and they would fulfill our interest in having international kids who speak English and have money. Having host families doesn't work, as it's not institutionalized care provided by the school (seconded by Nancy Dimitriades). If we don't have accommodations, we won't get these kids. We have Chinese kids who want to come here for the whole four years of the US, but we can't accommodate them.

-(How Garrison accommodates boarders was discussed).

-Patrick Walsh: we need to look at what we're trying to accomplish here, though. Are we talking about six kids with one supervising adult, or twenty, in which case we need to provide dining services, etc.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: I think Tom and the board need to wrestle with this. Do we want to make this a priority? If we present them with the numbers, they can then make a decision.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: I don't see our board/administration building something to house international students or furnishing something that's not already in place.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: if we want more paying students, we can find some of those students internationally.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: a lot of this is out of our purview, so maybe we should just present this as a committee and let a decision be made.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: we need to provide details on how this is beneficial to the school. Why are international programs helpful, including our existing ones?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: agreed. It'd be great to have international students, but the board needs to make the decision.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: I asked Jake Talmadge if foreign exchanges/having international students in your school makes a difference for college admissions, and he doesn't have data. He suggested asking admissions folks at the top 25 universities. All the information on this for our guys right now is anecdotal.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Kaoru Kimura: there's a fee paid by the family of the student being hosted, but is there a way for the school to supplement those or provide more incentive to host families?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: the other option is having the school create a facility and staff it, then having "host families" volunteer to spend time with the kids on weekend for various outings/activities.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nick Stollenmeyer: hard to find data or other information on this from the internet or contacting other schools. This will require a significant amount of resources: money, time, and institutional commitment to really get going. We should take advantages of the opportunities that are out there for our teachers (exchange programs already in existence), perhaps, before we jump into bigger things.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Rebecca Pollard: I talked to Bruce Wilhelm about his exchange experience.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(various exchanges that have happened here were discussed)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: discussed the Oxbridge program. If we commit money to this as a school--it's very expensive--it'd be a great program.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: we (Nancy, John, and Susan) talked about having an International Center at Brooklandwood. We brainstormed ideas on it, but decided that we could start with baby steps, just using the downstairs at Brooklandwood and other pre-existing facilities/resources.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: wouldn't take much to start. We talked about bringing in artists, dancers, having culinary classes, language tutoring, et al. This could be a very visible, immediate step.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: Pete Shaifer and Danny Skelton have started a diversity group (Cultures Club) in the MS, and are planning on bringing in speakers amongst other activities. We could maybe pull that in to this initiative? Fellowship of Christian Athletes just started in the US, and they have guest speakers, too, including people who have done missionary work. They're trying to plan an international mission trip.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: tying in the athletic component would be cool.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(various) We need an International Office with staff to make this and these other things happen. You can't expect a teacher with a full class load to pull this off well.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: that's true at the schools we researched.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(various) There could be grant writers involved, a connection to the Development Office, make it an institutionalized, staffed office.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney/John Thorpe: the school has to commit financially to this, or not do it at all.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Kaoru Kimura: reported on other MS study abroad programs (handout provided).

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: so you don't support a MS exchange?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Kaoru Kimura: sort of; once before, it went well for some kids, not well for others.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Rebecca Pollard: not many middle schools do this. Did research on Oxbridge too, and yes, it's very expensive. They do have a 8-9 program, a month long, live in dorms. $7,295 per kid, not including airfare.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: what if the school helped subsidize this?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Rebecca Pollard: (described a number of Education First trips to Central/South America).

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: this would be the kind of information an International Office could research and provide to families. Also, are there special incentives we could build in for kids who participate, or make it a big deal?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nick Stollenmeyer: there are a huge number of government-sponsored exchanges that are paid for. A person in that position could help coordinate that, as well.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: not many people can afford these numbers.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: again, the school needs to commit resources to this so we can find ways to help pay for these types of things. (Nancy--tell me if I'm off-base with this synopsis of your comment--wasn't sure).

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(a discussion ensued of the need to provide financial aid to kids who need it for these types of trips)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nick Stollenmeyer: the more trips we offer, the more kids will have to pick and choose which trips to go on, because they won't be able to afford all of them.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: these things cost a lot of money, and where is that coming from?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: which is why if we accept international boarders, they can offset the cost of some these things.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: boarding fees at a number of schools would be in the $45K range.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(took a break)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: I think it'll be important to not pitch this to the board as us suggesting we move to becoming a boarding school.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(collectively) We need to choose different terminology rather than using the word "boarding."

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: it will have to be specified that the boarding is strictly for international students, NOT athletes. McDonogh recruits guys from all over because they can provide housing, and we have to avoid it evolving into that.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nick Stollenmeyer: Call it the International Education Exchange?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: we could do part boarding on-campus, part host families, with each kid getting to do both. We could add a host family interest checkbox on the actual student application.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: what's next? Do we need to do concrete research on the boarding component, or anything else? Anything need to move from the wish list? How can we move the existing wishes forward?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nancy Dimitriades: proposing that the "International Office" be in charge of this stuff will be a key first step.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: for something this big, you'd need to hire the staff a year or more before you started to bring in international students.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: we need to first make clear how this would benefit the school.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: what kind of timeline will the board need?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: this coming fall would be too soon. We need to allow for a good year to get moving on this. There are things we can start, however (brought up by John Thorpe).

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: we don't need to rush this, then.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: no, we have more homework to do, present final findings in June.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: one task will be to investigate the financial benefits of bringing a full-time, boarding international student to campus. Another will be finding additional funding (from the Development Office, perhaps?) to help pay for these things. Is there a benefactor out there? What about the logistical elements to this? Do we have people who will live with them? Dining services? It would probably mean changing our entire approach to dining services.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: are we talking about 4-6 kids in a house with an advisor, or 20 kids in a new building with a full-time dining service?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(general discussion: start with a small number so we don't fall into the trap of becoming a boarding school, per se)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(general discussion: what are the specifics of who we would hire to be the boarding supervisor? A young person?)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: the houses up the hill are close enough together that some supervision could be provided by adjacent faculty.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-(logistics about staffing, respite care discussed)

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: we need to layout what we want to have prepared for next meeting.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney/Matt Byars: we can talk to St. Tim's and Garrison Forest about the details of their program.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Kaoru Kimura: I'll talk to Willie about his experience with hosting students.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Emily Mawhinney: I'll look into how international offices are set up at other schools. Can someone look at how having international students benefits schools?

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Patrick Walsh: I'll do that.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Nick Stollenmeyer: (will look at logistics).

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-Susan Kearney: I'll look at the numbers: cost, and benefit to the school.

<span style="font-family: "ArialMT","sans-serif"; font-size: 20px;">-John Thorpe: is the STEM group looking into how to use technology to make connections globally?