RBR Students Spend their Summer Studying Abroad

This summer, Red Bank Regional (RBR) students Sima Vaidya and Adeline Monfil, contributed toward Beijing’s efforts to transform its polluted city into a sustainable living environment. Dylan Weiss collaborated with high school students from around the United States in an entrepreneurial competition in Dublin, Ireland. Orean Luna joined classmates Nicholas Principe and Lauren Marcolus in beautiful Ferrara, Italy, immersed in the Italian language and culture for four weeks. Gian Guerra similarly chose immersion in France and joined the locals for pick-up games of soccer amid the backdrop of the great French World-cup victory in July. These students were among the 14 RBR students who took advantage of the prestigious Council for International Educational Exchange (CIEE) Global Navigator Program.

For over 70 years, CIEE has been a global non-profit organization providing student study-abroad experiences; it is the largest sponsor of J-1 and F-1 visa programs. The programs which include nearly 30 countries feature four weeks of language and cultural immersion, three weeks of Service and Leadership or Global Discovery. The language immersion programs carry four college credits and the service and leadership programs provide the students with 50 community service hours.

Through the generosity of a global-minded philanthropist, over $5 million and 2,000 scholarships are awarded each year to students who otherwise could never afford the experience of international study. Red Bank Regional students received over $40,000 in scholarship money for this program in both merit and financial-aid based gifts. All students were responsible for paying their own airfare and passport fees. This was by far one of the largest gifts given to any school in New Jersey. RBR also had one of the largest number of students participate in the program in New Jersey.

Caryn Berman, CIEE International Studies Advisor stated, “This is a huge accomplishment (for RBR), since we are looking for the best and strongest students to participate in the program.”

Criteria for acceptance include top grades, strong essays submissions and teacher recommendations.

Ms. Berman explained that RBR was such a perfect candidate for CIEE programs because of the high school’s strong emphasis on global studies due to its International Baccalaureate Program and itsmany Seal of Biliteracy recipients, coupled with the schools’ economic and diverse population.

She states, “The donor for our scholarship program (who owned a publishing company) wanted to set up a scholarship fund to promote biliteracy and open access for US students to study abroad. Because historically that has been an elite opportunity, she wanted to level the playing field and give other students that same opportunity.”

Orean Luna of Red Bank was one RBR student who greatly benefited from this generous scholarship. Orean studied in Ferrara, Italy, where he lived with a host family with two boys approximately his age. He was immersed in the Italian language and soon became able to easily converse in a café or shop.

He stated, “There were so many things I liked. I was staying with a host family and was fascinated to see how their home life worked. The culture seemed a lot like mine. We all ate together at the dining table and we shared a lot of laughs during dinner. We visited a lot of places like the ancient city of San Marino in the mountains with great views. I had never seen castles and fortresses before. I took away that the world is not a small place and there was so much out there to explore. I would love to see a lot of places and I hope to look into colleges that have great study-abroad programs.”

Sima Vaidya of Shrewsbury has a strong interest in climate change. So she chose to apply to the “Building a Sustainable Mega City in Beijing China” CIEE program and was also granted a generous merit scholarship. She explains that some days the pollution was so bad in Beijing that she had to wear a mask. She contributed to the study of the city’s terrible pollution problem by performing experiments in local parks and testing the water. She was stunned by the contrast from the city to the countryside.

She explained, “The most amazing thing was our week-long stay in the countryside where we did vegetable picking in an organic farm without pesticides. I was really interested in how they grew their vegetables and reused resources by making their own compost.”

She noted how the Chinese are trying to address the urban pollution issue by planting trees and utilizing more bicycles and electric bikes.

She summarized, “I feel I have really grown from this experience. I got to explore beyond my own life. It was totally different from anything I know and very important to see how they are trying to change the environment in a place where it needs to be done.”

Dylan Weiss chose to explore global entrepreneurship in Dublin, Ireland.

He remarks, “We studied how the entrepreneurial mind works and how to run a company. We worked as a team to pitch a product Shark-Tank style. My group made a custom t-shirt on a location-based product that would turn the google street map into a design on the t-shirt.”

Outside the classroom, the students toured the picturesque Irish isle. Among Dylan’s most memorable excursions was a three-day jaunt to the Gaelic-speaking western islands including Westport and Galloway. There he visited Trinity College and the fishing village of Howth. He most enjoyed watching the sheep dogs herding their charges on a local sheep farm.

Gian Guerra of Red Bank found the program to be very challenging but exciting. He loved his host family experience where he would practice his French in addition to the three hours of classroom instruction each day. He would then practice his skills with locals who were very happy to help. He believes his pronunciation has greatly improved. Gian also interacted with locals playing soccer in the local parks. He found Parisians very friendly and helpful stating, “They were very nice and they wanted to understand our culture and compare theirs to ours to see what is similar and what brings us together, like being a good person, respecting each other and caring for each other.”

Gian loved the cultural experiences taking in the cultural icons like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. But he claims the highlight of his experience to be the French clenching the World Cup.

He explains, "I felt the whole country was united. They didn’t go to sleep for a second. After 20 years since their last victory it was a wonderful sight to see. This experience is one I will never forget.”

Like Gian, all the students made memories on these trips that they would never forget.

Caryn Berman remarks, “A lot of these kids had never been out of the country or even on a plane before. And it is remarkable to witness kids from all over America and divergent economic and ethnic backgrounds living, studying and exploring together, be it in another country.”

For more information on the CIEE Global Navigator Programs visit their website at https://www.ciee.org/high-school-summer-abroad/. The priority deadline for students to apply for scholarships is November 30, 2018. Students can click on the attached link as CIEE has begun receiving applications for Summer 2019!https://my.ciee.org/login