Overview

This exchange program was created by Jon Pennington, Head of Spanish at VIMSIA and Alejandrina Sanchez, a language instructor at the Asociación Bahiense de Cultura Inglesa, an English language academy in Bahía Blanca, Argentina.

The program will pair VIMSIA students with students from  Asociación Bahiense de Cultura Inglesa.

Chaperones for this program are: Alejandrina Sanchez from Bahía Blanca and Jon Pennington and Diandra Jones from VIMSIA.

Dates

There are two parts of this exchange:

For the first part of the exchange, ten students and their teacher from Argentina will visit VIMSIA for two weeks, from February 4, 2011 until February 19, 2011, which is the end of the Argentine school year. The Argentine students will live with hosting families of the American students and will attend school with their student hosts for ten days.

During the second part of the exchange the students will reverse the roles and the same American students will travel to Argentina during Endsession beginning May 20, 2010 and return home on June 6, 2010. The American students will live with individual host families of their Argentine partner and attend high school in Argentina for 10 days.

Location

Bahía Blanca is located in the southeast of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean. It has an approximate population of 274,509 inhabitants. The distance between the two cities is about 375 miles.

.

Eligibility

The exchange is open students at VIMSIA grades 7 through 11.

Application Process

There are two parts of the application process.  All interested students will be required to complete an application.

Students selected to continue in the process will be expected to participate in an interview.  Students selected will be interviewed by a committee consisting of Mr. Jon Pennington, Ms. Diandra Jones and The MYP and DP coordinators.

Teacher Contact

Parents and students interested in participating in this program should contact Jon Pennington at jpennington@vimsia.org

Cost

The anticipated cost of the exchange is $2,500.00. Once accepted into the program, we will need a non refundable  deposit of $300 to reserve your place in the program.

 Included are: roundtrip airfare, student travel/medical insurance, group entertainment and excursions

NOTE: The overall program expense will likely be less because of a variety of program specific fundraising opportunities we have planned. Details of program expenses will be discussed at our informational meeting. The date of this meeting which should be attended by both parents is on Thursday, Oct 28.