{"id":11399,"date":"2025-02-17T02:51:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T02:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=11399"},"modified":"2025-02-17T02:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T02:51:36","slug":"a-guide-to-semester-away-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2025\/02\/a-guide-to-semester-away-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Semester Away Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year, most Fieldston Form V students remain in the beloved Bronx campus. However, a handful of juniors journey to a set of affiliated programs to spend a semester engaging in political conversations with our nation\u2019s leaders, learning farm skills in Vermont or exploring the hidden gems of New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fieldston partners with five semester-away programs: the School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL), which has campuses in Washington D.C., London, England and Johannesburg, South Africa; the Island School in Eleuthera, the Bahamas; the Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont; High Mountain Institute (HMI) in Leadville, Colorado; and Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine. Each school offers a different and enriching learning experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saskia Sommer (Form V) currently attends SEGL<\/a> in Washington D.C. and says it is \u201cthe singular best experience of [her] life.\u201d At SEGL, students learn ethical and critical thinking skills and meet political leaders to make informed decisions about global issues. \u201cHere, we learn from leaders shaping the world while becoming said leaders ourselves and bonding through Capitol jaunts, karaoke sessions and late-night talks,\u201d said Sommer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Egan (Form VI) attended HMI<\/a>, a wilderness exploration program nestled in the mountains of Colorado. Egan chose the program for a break from the monotonous high school routine. \u201cBy junior year, I was tired of high school and just seeing the same people every day, so I wanted to try something new,\u201d said Egan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much more worth it to have a new experience, and it really helps you be confident being independent from your family,\u201d she shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At The Mountain School<\/a>, participants live, learn and work on a farm while being conscious of the environmental impact of everyday decisions. Ella Rahav (Form IV), who hopes to attend the Mountain School, said she chose to apply to a semester away program to \u201cbroaden [her] perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fieldston, she said, \u201cis so heavily based on being progressive and having diversity of thought and being a diverse community that celebrates all different perspectives.\u201d Rahav wants to spend a semester away \u201cto come back and take these experiences [at a] semester away program and apply them to make our community a more rich and diverse place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rahav specifically chose the Mountain School because she was interested in \u201cthe idea of belonging to this community where you are challenged by your peers, and you\u2019re all engaging in deeply critical thinking and you\u2019re all also working on a farm to sustain each other, so you\u2019re all working for a shared goal that benefits more than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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At the Mountain School, students spend time learning thoughtfully about the environment around them. Source: The Mountain School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Chewonki<\/a>, a semester program located on the coast of Maine, encompasses over 400 acres to explore and learn about the surrounding ecosystem. Amelia Citron (Form VI) attended the program last year, and said she \u201cwanted to [apply] since [she] knew what it was in elementary school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole curriculum is based around environmental studies,\u201d said Citron. \u201cSo every single class, you’re doing trigonometry by measuring trees, and you\u2019re reading eco-literature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who attend The Island School<\/a>, a program situated on the beautiful Bahamian island of Eleuthera, learn ecology and marine biology by studying the natural environment around them. \u201cI was always interested in marine biology and I love fishing, I like surfing, so the Island School appealed to me,\u201d said Alex Hee (Form VI), who attended the Island School last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something for people who like to take advantage of every opportunity, whether it\u2019s jumping off a dock, even though you have clothes on,\u201d said Hee. \u201cIt\u2019s for people who like to explore and like to experiment and try new things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the several external semester away programs, Fieldston offers an in-house semester program called City Semester. According to the program\u2019s website<\/a>, City Semester is \u201can interdisciplinary, experiential semester program that starts from the very simple premise that New York City is our classroom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether in English or math class, I am a student that always found myself asking \u2018why?\u2019 in the classroom,\u201d said Caitlin Neidow (Form VI), who took City Semester during the fall of her junior year. \u201cIn City Sem, I was always able to answer that question for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fieldston Juniors during the 2024 fall semester of City Semester. Source: ECFS City Sem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In City Semester, students spend either the spring or fall semester learning about New York City and its many facets. In addition to typical classes, the program incorporates off-campus trips to take learning outside the classroom. \u201cWe go on about two trips, maybe three sometimes, a week,\u201d said Jeein Chung (Form V), who recently finished City Semester this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s super fun how they incorporate science and maths and different subjects into the trips that you do, making it really fun in a way that you can digest it and understand what you\u2019re learning rather than just sitting in a classroom and looking at a board or having someone lecture to you,\u201d shared Chung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow City Semester alum Juliet Lipman (Form V) enjoyed the program\u2019s flexibility and responsiveness. \u201cI like that the curriculum is based off of the students so it’s more engaging for you,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lipman said her reasoning for applying to City Semester stemmed from her desire to learn more about New York City. \u201cI really wanted to do it because I\u2019m from Westchester, so I actually don\u2019t know a lot of the city, and I was really excited to explore it,\u201d she shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For any freshman or sophomores considering applying to a semester away program, Lipman says simply, \u201cDo it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chung added, \u201cA lot of people have different concerns about falling behind in classes or not being able to have that typical learning experience that they\u2019re used to. But I feel like because we went in with such open minds, it really helped us to take everything in rather than just being worried about little things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should 100% at least apply for it,\u201d said Chung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, most Fieldston Form V students remain in the beloved Bronx campus. However, a handful of juniors journey to a set of affiliated programs to spend a semester engaging in political conversations with our nation\u2019s leaders, learning farm skills in Vermont or exploring the hidden gems of New York City.  Fieldston partners with five semester-away programs: the School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL), which has campuses in Washington D.C., London, England and Johannesburg,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":11401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,644,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[597],"class_list":["post-11399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-features","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-16-at-9.47.00-PM-e1739760446100.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11402,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11399\/revisions\/11402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11399"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}