Exchanges

At the Academy we believe that students learn best by doing. In concert with that belief, students can take part in a number of exchange opportunities during their academic career.

Lower School students ‘exchange’ most simply by experiencing the world in their own city through field trips.

Middle School students are given the opportunity to participate in either a French or Spanish trip that includes a home stay and is chaperoned by their language teacher.

Upper school students can participate in a number of exchanges. Project Week offers either a French or a Spanish exchange each year. In addition, trips abroad often include a one-night home stay, a visit to a local school or the like. The Upper School also support two  exchange programs outside of Project Week.

Since 2005, 10th Grade students have been able to participate in a six-week long exchange program in the winter with Sutton Valence School, a boarding school in Kent, England. Students spend their weekdays studying with English students while wearing uniforms and staying in a dorm. On the weekends they stay with a family and explore the near environs including Dover and London. Exchange students often come back with a new understanding of the United Kingdom, and a realization that their viewpoints and culture are more different than one might think. Students then host a Sutton Valence student in the spring.

In 2009 we began an exchange program through Sister Cities International with Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hamburg. In February of odd numbered years MPA students visit our sister school as part of the Chicago Sister Cities Exchange Program. MPA students reside with families from Wilhelm-Gymnasium for about 10 days. Besides getting to know Hamburg and our German host families, the students attend a soccer game at the 52,000 seat FIFA Hamburg World Cup Stadium, visit the medieval town of Lubeck with its ancient city gate and many original buildings still intact, travel to the resort town of Travemunde on the Baltic Sea, and spend a day touring Berlin including former Nazi headquarters and remnants of the Berlin Wall. In the following October, our German host students travel to America and experience life in Chicago during their home stay with Morgan Park Academy families. Many international friendships have developed through this program.