Contact: Heidi Schnee
Phone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tappahannock (October 5, 2005) -
Four international students from St. Margaret’s School were the only student speakers at the Virginia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL) conference at the University of Virginia on Saturday, October 1.
Seniors Eileen Tsai of Taiwan and Melissa Farara of the British Virgin Islands joined sophomore Hailey Jung of Korea and junior Mariam Smith-Pliego of Mexico at the all-day event. St. Margaret’s School Director of International Programs Leslie Bohon and ESL teacher Heidi Schnee accompanied them.
This year’s VATESOL conference theme was “Measuring Up: Assessment in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.” In a joint presentation with Bohon and Schnee, the students gave an assessment of the workshop Bohon created to help new international students at SMS understand and overcome culture shock. The four girls shared their personal culture shock testimonials with an audience of ESL teachers and professionals, then explained in depth the programs at St. Margaret’s that helped them through the experience of living and learning in a new culture.
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Four St. Margaret’s School students gave a presentation
about their “culture shock” experiences to ESL
teachers and professionals at a statewide
conference held at the University of Virginia.
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Through the SMS International Program, “I learned how to be a role model for others and accept and move on from the lowest point in my culture shock experience,” Farara said. “Even though my native language is English, I still had cultural differences. The Culture Shock Workshop helped me identify that I had a different kind and level of culture shock, which was normal.”
Tsai and Farara, both of whom have been at St. Margaret’s for four years, are dorm prefects and athletes who embody the International Program’s desired outcomes. By fully integrating international students into the life of the school, St. Margaret’s gives all of its students the opportunity to be part of a community that closely mirrors the world in which they will one day live and work.
St. Margaret’s was one of the first American boarding schools to offer a comprehensive international program that combines English instruction with challenging academics and immersion in American culture. This year, 22 SMS students are citizens of 8 other countries: British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Mexico. Since the program was established in 1990, more than 100 students from 30 countries have attended St. Margaret’s.
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