Chinese Educators Visit Souhegan High School

By Jeanne Neverisky, Visit Coordinator SHS

On May 30, a group of educators from Shenzhen, China visited Souhegan High School to observe the school’s education model and to speak with teachers, administrators and students. The visit was part of was part of an exchange program at Brown University.  

The Brown University-Shenzhen Institute for Headmasters, a program that “aims to form a platform for communication between international educators to strengthen international trust, exchange and collaboration, support the pipeline of teachers and school leaders, and use research to improve policy and practice”. Dan Bisaccio, a former long-time science teacher at Souhegan is now a Director of Science Education at Brown, and made the connection for the visit.

The group of 21 administrators and teachers spent a full day at Souhegan; four members of the group served as translators.

In Martha Rives’ advisory, students included the visitors in their game and invited questions as part of the activity.Classroom observations included an interdisciplinary economics unit, World Studies, US History, biology, engineering, and trips to the outdoors for both Conservation Biology and the High Ropes course.

“We have several to many educator-visits every year at Souhegan”, said Jeanne Neverisky, Visit Coordinator at the school.  The visits and observations come about when a school or individual is interested in learning about Souhegan’s progressive education practices.  “We have hosted visitors from all over the country, but never before from China.”

Students Alex Kibbie, Brian Ringenwald and Jacky Lim escorted the visitors for much of the day, with other Souhegan students jumping in to help out as needed. The students enjoyed meeting the Shenzhen educators and were glad to have the opportunity to show them around their school.  

The visitors had an opportunity to learn about Senior Project, Division 1 Exhibition and enjoy a question and answer session with Team 9B faculty and Dean of Faculty Colleen Meaney. The exchange of information on education, communities, and practice gave Souhegan community members food for thought as well.  

The Shenzhen educators were very appreciative of the opportunity, and presented students and faculty with gifts of culture from their city.   One of the gifts presented to the Souhegan community is a school banner from the Shenzhen Education Management and Innovation Training School for Middle School Principals.

The visit opens the door for exchange between  Amherst and Shenzhen schools.