The Summit Welcomes International Students

From left: sophomores Matthew Choi and Ryan Lee, freshman Justin Zhou, sophomore Selina Vogl, Upper School Director Dr. Terrence Malone, sophomore Suli Yang, freshman Jackson Xiong, freshmen Charlotte Luo and Alex Yang.

International Students Summit Welcomes Eight New

By Louise Zhou ’14 This year, we are blessed to have eight international students who have traveled up to 6,000 miles to join our Summit community. They include five students from China, two students from Korea, and one student from Austria. “This is a great opportunity for all the students,” says Barnard Baker, Associate Director of Admission.

“The international students get to take part in our community and experience a unique school, while building their leadership, academics and spirituality, and while our Summit students get a global view of the world. They realize that they don’t live in a bubble.”

All of these students are full of ambition and have a longing for something new and adventurous.

They each made the very difficult decision to leave everything they know and journey to the land of

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freedom and opportunity. When I asked Justin Zhou, freshman, the reason he decided to leave China, he replied, “Education in China is boring and stressful.

You have no choice in classes, and you are not allowed to play sports. School starts at 7:30 a.m. and sometimes goes all the way until 9:30 p.m. Our whole semester grade is based on one exam you take at the end of the semester. You only get one chance. It was so much pressure.”

How did these students find their way to The Summit? You would think that a school with only 380 students in the Upper School would hardly be noticeable to families living oceans away. That assumption would be wrong. One parent came to the U.S., traveled to over 20 top-notch high schools and chose The Summit for her daughter to attend in the coming fall. She commented on how friendly the entire school was and how she thought her daughter would reach her highest potential

here. Other international families consulted with friends and relatives from the Cincinnati area who likewise thought highly of The Summit. Based on their experiences, they eagerly recommended The Summit.

The Summit community has made a great effort to welcome these students and to help them make the hard transition of moving from their hometowns to a whole new environment. All of these students love Summit and America. “All the teachers are kind, the other students are nice and everyone is so accepting,” says freshman Charlotte Luo. “It is something I never would have expected.” Not only has Summit welcomed our friends from abroad with open arms, but the community has inspired the students to get involved with the school. They are joining sports teams, participating in clubs and taking advantage of everything Summit has to offer.

If you stop to think about all the sacrifice and commitment these students have made for their futures, it’s truly astonishing. Not only were these students at the top of their class, but they also took it upon themselves to reach their fullest potential. They took the initiative to place themselves in an environment where they can strive and discover their interests while enjoying the life of a typical American teenager. They left their families to live in a new country that speaks a language foreign to them. I think we can all admire how much courage, ambition and maturity they have at such young ages.

One of the most important things we have learned from our friends from abroad is how easy it is to find connections and common interests with people, regardless of their backgrounds and cultures. “Our international students have been wide-eyed and very willing to learn,” says Mr. Baker. “They are willing to take part and get involved in not only academics but also the community. Most importantly, they are enjoying their experience here.”

It is obvious. The international students, as well as The Summit community benefit greatly from the

international students being here. The students have transitioned into The Summit community with outstanding ease. The Summit is proud to call them a part of our close-knit family.

Junior Louise Zhou was born in Cincinnati but lived five years in Wuhan, a city in southwest China, with her parents. She speaks fluent Mandarin.

How to Host a Student The Summit Country Day School and Westar Education are looking for families to host international students for 2013-14.

• Families must provide a safe environment, love and friendship, moral support, basic needs and parental guidance. Host families receive $700 per month for providing room and board.

• Families receive guidance from Westar and The Summit in the process, which includes an application, interview, match with a student, family orientation and preparation for the student’s arrival.

• Westar will provide holiday care if families cannot accommodate the student.

To find out how you can host a student, please contact Barnard Baker, Associate Director of Admission, (513) 871-4700 x278 or e-mail baker_b@summitcds.org

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ISACS: Commendations Host Families Needed for International Students The Summit Country Day School and Westar Education are looking for families to host international students for 2013-14.

Five Westar students attend The Summit this year.

“We hope that more Summit families, empty nesters, alumni or grandparents will host additional students next year,” says Barnard Baker, Associate Director of Admission. “These students broaden the global diversity of our school, enriching the lives of all our students.”

Parent Heather Spanbauer says her family’s experience hosting freshman Alex Yang, has been an excellent opportunity for her children – Jocelyn, Calvin and Stewart. “Alex is a great student and a Alex with his first carved wonderful pianist,” she Jack-O-Lantern says. “We have had a lot of fun taking him to a Reds game, helping him carve a pumpkin, serving him Thanksgiving turkey, preparing him for his first Homecoming dance and so much more. Alex is taking tennis lessons and helping Calvin learn Chinese.”

Westar seeks families who can provide a loving Christian home for their international students.

Student selection and placement follow the Council on Standards for International Education Travel. Students must demonstrate high academic performance and character through multiple tests and interviews.

• Families must provide a safe environment, love and friendship, moral support, basic needs and parental guidance. Host families receive $700 per month for providing room and board.

• Families receive guidance from Westar and The Summit in the process, which includes an application, interview, match with a student, family orientation and preparation for the student’s arrival.

• Westar will provide holiday care if families cannot accomodate the student.

To find out how you can host a student, please contact Barnard Baker, Associate Director of Admission, (513) 871-4700 x278 or e-mail baker_b@summitcds.org

John Buxton, Chair of the visiting team from The Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), presented the following major commendations to the faculty and staff at the end of the visit:

1. Success in creating a community that is the embodiment of its Mission. Students, faculty, parents and staff are nearly unanimous in their support for the Mission, and in embracing it so completely, they internalize these values and commit to them. This community becomes the best example of what The Summit Country Day School Mission looks like, lived.

2. Courage, perseverance, kindness, and a sense of responsibility demonstrated by the faculty and staff during what has to have been the most trying period in the school’s history. Starting with the collapse of a major school building in 2004; and followed immediately by the resignation of two Heads of School; and in the context of the most significant financial depression in our lifetime, the faculty and staff lived the maxim of Honor in Action and cared for their students while governing bodies worked to repair the damage, which was both physical and emotional.

3. Selection of and support for its new Head of School who has restored the trust in the School community and with parents and faculty and staff and is now leading the School out of the troubles of the past seven years as a confident yet humble leader. His openness and honesty combined with his business acumen and quick mastery of a new profession make him the perfect choice for The Summit at this time in its history.

4. Creating of, commitment to, and adoption of a new Five Year Strategic Plan that will address the challenges identified in the last ISACS report in the areas of academic identity, enrollment and retention, and financial sustainability that has been blessed by the entire community.

5. Positive and effective response to the Major Recommendations of the 2005 ISACS Visiting Team Report that called for new initiatives to address discrepancies in employee benefits, to bolster enrollment and retention, to create the infrastructure for Technology, and to commit more resources to Professional Development.

6. The emphasis on student-centered development evident in School activities like Advisement, Assembly, athletics, Chapel Talks, and servant leadership projects.

7. Acceptance, and the inclusivity that accompanies that acceptance, of the cultural and religious diversity of the School by its entire School community, its parents, and the Board of Trustees.

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