Project Update

Hi all! The dream team composed of Gabi, Ms. Diederich, Ms. Chung, and myself had its first meeting this past Thursday. We discussed the rapidly approaching Nirayama school visit and possible improvements to be made to the protocol by which we structure visits from our sister schools. More specifically, we thought about which groups within the Poly community could be utilized in order to give the Upper School as a whole a better understanding of the daily lives, routines, and customs of our guests. For example, the French club and those in the French program could inform Poly students about our visitors from Saint-Martin. That way, when the students arrive, the whole community would be ready with a remedial comprehension of their culture, making the guests feel more at home and allowing for students to focus their short time with the students on conversations of greater depth. We think the Mandarin students, especially those who went to China with Poly or have been on their own, would be able to serve the community in a similar way when we host students from Beijing in the winter.
We are still a little unclear on exactly how we will go about making improvements to the hosting system, but we have a few thoughts. First, as mentioned above, we believe that getting more Poly students involved and more information disseminated is key. Second, we want to use social media to allow Poly students to contact their counterparts abroad both before and after hosting them. We are also keen on the idea of Poly students creating questions to ask their guests based on the information we provide to them. Such questions would cover a range of topics from breakfast food to politics. There is much to do and to iron out, but we are off to a good start!