December of 2023Project Location/Destination: Out of town - Cape Town & Johannesburg, South Africa
Faculty Leaders: Milena Sjekloca & Elena Solotroff
Travel Dates: Saturday March 11 to Wednesday March 22, 2023 (Please note project begins on Saturday, March 11 and ends on Wednesday, March 22)
Anticipated Hosting Dates: December 2023
Please note that registration for this Global Exchange Program includes an additional application process. See details below.
Cost: $3000
Special Considerations:
See below.
Objective
This extended 12-day project is part of Latin’s Global Exchanges program, which is designed to prepare Latin students to become aware, empathetic, competent citizens of the world by means of cultural and/or language immersion in collaboration with partner schools around the world. This particular program is with Cedar House, a progressive, co-educational independent school in Cape Town, South Africa with which Latin has partnered since 2012.
After a two-year hiatus due to Covid 19, we are resuming this exchange in the spring of 2023. A group of 12-16 students from Latin will travel to Cape Town during P-Week and the beginning of spring break, 2023. In turn, Latin students will host their exchange partners for a period of 8-10 days in December of 2023. While preference is given to students whose families commit to reciprocal hosting, we will accept applications by those who may not be able to host in 2023 (e.g., seniors) but are fully invested in the experience and willing to look for alternate hosts, for example a younger sibling or a Latin classmate, for their South African counterparts.
Latin students will be staying with host families from the Cedar House community and will participate in a variety of activities, including visiting Cedar House classes, touring Cape Town and its environs, and participating in community programs recommended by Benita November, Vice-Principal and Director of Global Exchanges for Cedar House. This project will also include a 3-4 day extension to Johannesburg where we will visit the Apartheid Museum, the Mandela House Museum, and Soweto, a predominantly black township where all eleven official languages of South Africa are spoken.
Description
The group will arrive in Johannesburg and spend three days there before departing for Cape Town.
Upon the group’s arrival in Cape Town, students will meet their host families and settle in. Weekdays the Latin group will begin at Cedar House School. After visiting classes at Cedar House and getting to know the school community, the group will be immersed in Cape Town life. Highlights of the time in Cape Town include a tour of the District Museum (Cape Town’s apartheid history museum), a visit to Robben Island (site of late South African leader Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment), a hike on Table Mountain, a visit to one of Cape Town’s Township communities, and a community service project with Cedar House students. Evenings and weekends, participants will spend time doing activities with their host families and participating in Cedar House community events, including rehearsal for the talent show which is the culminating activity of Cedar House’s spring term.
This project is ideal for students who are curious about South African culture and history and willing to embrace living with a host family. Students will gain much from this project, including life-long friendships with Cedar House students and community members.
Student Requirements and Expectations
Students are required to fill out an application to the Global Exchanges program. Upon submission, the application will be reviewed and students' families will be notified before November 14th, the due date for the P-Week submissions. The selection process for the exchanges is not random, but is based on a specific criteria used to match the applicants with their prospective host families.
Participants are expected to embrace living with a host family and are willing to read articles and watch videos on South African history and culture before traveling to Cape Town.
Except for seniors, participants and their families should be open to hosting a South African exchange student in December of 2023. If unable to host, students participating in this project are expected to participate in the activities hosted by Latin when the South Africans visit Chicago.
Participants will need a passport that is valid for at least SIX months after March 23.
Passports must have TWO CONSECUTIVE BLANK visa pages for entry into South Africa.
If you do not have a passport that meets those requirements, please begin the application for one as soon as you apply to be in this project (please be aware that the post-Covid application process is substantially longer, so make sure to apply asap)
If you do not have an American passport, please see project leaders as soon as you are placed in the project.
***Students interested in this Exchange must fill out a short supplemental application for the special selection process:
APPLICATION HERE****
About the faculty
Latin faculty Milena Sjekloca and Elena Solotroff, both of whom are foreign-born, multilingual, and have vast travel experience, will be accompanying the Cape Town Exchange students.
Milena Sjekloca has extensive global exchange experience. She was an exchange student in Vittoria, Italy and she came to the United States as an exchange student in Salt Lake City, UT. At Latin, Milena has traveled with the Berlin and Madrid exchanges, and hosted faculty from Germany twice. She also created and led a neighborhood tour of Bronzeville for the Berlin, Madrid, and Cape Town exchanges. Milena is in her eighth year at Latin and currently teaches Global Studies, Global Art and Culture, and International Human Rights Law.
Elena Solotroff works in the Language Department and is passionate about being part of Latin’s Global Exchanges program this year. She believes that traveling is an irreplaceable opportunity to widen our horizons and she feels fortunate to be able to guide the students to make the most of this experience. She is always eager to visit new cities, discover their unique places, and learn about their history and culture. She believes that a cultural and/or language immersion offers an opportunity to build bridges between cultures and create spaces of harmony in this world.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have:
Milena Sjekloca msjekloca@latinschool.org and Elena Solotroff esolotroff@latinschool.org
Ingrid Dorer, Director of Academic Initiatives globalexperience@latinschool.org
Special Considerations
Accommodation considerations - Students will live with a matched host family and may have to share a room with their host student or a sibling.
COVID related information - Some venues may require proof of COVID vaccination or negative test. Students are encouraged to travel with this information and provide it, if required. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.
Food limitations and allergies - Students with food allergies and food sensitivities should understand that there may be times that food options will be limited. In addition, there may be cross contamination risk of allergens, as there will be times where outside food vendors will prepare our meals. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.
Passport Requirement - Students must have a valid passport that expires more than six months upon return. Passports must have TWO CONSECUTIVE BLANK visa pages for entry into South Africa.
Scheduling (Out-of-Town) - This project will have time commitment outside of the M-F (8-4) typical school week. Please note that there is an expectation that students are able to attend the whole time the project is running.
Special selection process - Participants are expected to embrace living with a host family and are willing to read articles and watch videos on South African history and culture before traveling to Cape Town. Except for seniors, participants and their families should be open to hosting a South African exchange student in December of 2023. If unable to host, students participating in this project are expected to participate in the activities hosted by Latin when the South Africans visit Chicago.
Supervision during the day - Students might be unsupervised for short periods of time during the course of the day.
Sensitive Topics - Students will be exposed to sensitive topics.
Transportation considerations - Students will take public transportation with faculty.
Global Exchange Vision and Programs
Global Exchanges and Partnerships are part of a broader global education program at Latin designed to prepare our students to become aware, empathetic, competent citizens of the world. Specifically the program aims to help students:
Understand what is going on globally and discern the interconnectedness of cultures
Respect people of different cultures, embrace difference, and show empathy that reaches beyond national boundaries
Engage with people from various parts of the world, tackle real-world global problems, and show increasing competence in their ability to communicate in more than one language
These goals are in line with the School’s Mission and the values of excellence, community and integrity outlined in our Teaching and Learning document as well as the goals of our DEI work and NAIS principles of good practice regarding Education for Global Citizenship.