Wooster School Study Abroad Programs

Please note: The Study Abroad program is not available for the 2012-13 academic year.

Since 1966, the Wooster School Study Abroad Program has offered qualified students between the ages of 14 and 16 the unique opportunity to spend an academic year in France or Spain. Students this age are able to meet the challenges they encounter when immersed in a different culture and are able to reintegrate themselves fairly easily upon their return from France or Spain.

In accordance with the mission of Wooster School, the Study Abroad Program seeks to help students learn another language and come to understand the culture and way of life of the host country. Through total immersion in school and full participation in a host family who has a child close to the same age who goes to the same school, students become deeply familiar with a new culture. Students also learn much about themselves and gain self-confidence through this experience. Many former participants have reported their year abroad with Wooster’s program to have been a life-changing experience.

---

The Setting of the Program in France

Wooster’s Study Abroad Program takes place in France’s Champagne region in the city of Troyes, with a population of 62,000 and another 60,000 people in the surrounding villages which have become part of the city. Featuring many churches, half-timbered houses, and cobble-stoned pedestrian streets, this city is located 169 kilometers from Paris and is served by trains to Paris (1 ½ hours) and Basel, Switzerland (2 hours). Troyes’ modern art museum contains paintings by Derain, Matisse, Dufy, Modigliani, Delacroix, Picasso, Cezanne, and Seurat. Rabbi Shlomo Rachi, the great Jewish interpreter of the Bible and the Talmud, lived in Troyes in the eleventh century and a modern center for Judaic studies in the city bears his name today. For the outdoor enthusiast, the Lac d’Orient Regional Nature Park is located less than 10 kilometers east of Troyes and provides abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation such as hiking, swimming, kayaking, and wind surfing.

The Setting of the Program in Spain

Wooster’s Study Abroad Program in Spain operates in the Comunidad Valenciana, one of Spain’s 17 “autonomous communities.” The capital of the community is Valencia, with a population of approximately 750,000 people. The region prides itself on its diversified local industries, agriculture, craftsmanship, and festivals. The most well known of the latter is Fallas, which takes place each year in March. Valencia combines the ancient and the modern, with a modern science museum and conference center, and medieval churches. The City of Arts and Sciences has a museum, hanging gardens, a performing arts center, a planetarium, and an aquarium. Valencia’s native son, Santiago Calatrava, the architect of the city, has won international acclaim for his work. For lovers of the outdoors, in addition to the beaches, Valencia’s biggest and most prominent natural habitat is La Albufera nature reserve. In the center of the reserve is a large freshwater lake made possible due to the protection provided by a series of dunes and pine groves that keep the Mediterranean waters separate. Many bird species nest and breed here including flamingos and herons, and visitors can take boat trips on the lake.