Gain a global perspective.

Beginning in 2011, we’ve had a biennial exchange with our partner school in Caen, France, Institution Sainte Marie de Caen (ISMC) in 2011. Every other fall, MICDS welcomes students from Caen who stay with MICDS families and attend Upper School classes for two weeks. The following spring, MICDS students and two teacher chaperones travel to France for a two-week homestay with their host families in Caen. There, they attend classes at ISMC and experience the beauty and history of Normandy on school field trips. The MICDS group also spends three days in Paris to enjoy the sights of the City of Lights, including Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, Sacré Coeur, Musée d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and shopping at the Champs-Elysées.

MICDS began its biennial sister school partnership with Shanghai Foreign Language School (SFLS) in Shanghai, China, in 2011. Every other June, MICDS students and teacher chaperones travel to China to tour famous cultural sights, attend classes, and experience Chinese urban life through homestay visits. The group begins in Shanghai where they meet their Chinese counterparts from SFLS and travel to Suzhou, a cultural, historic site. The trip ends in Beijing, where they visit The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and The Great Wall. In October of the same year, MICDS welcomes the SFLS students and their chaperones for a two-week homestay and school visit.

Our biennial exchange with our sister school, Instituto Albert Einstein (AIE), in Mar del Plata, Argentina, began in 2012. Every other spring, MICDS Students and teacher chaperones travel to the capital city of Buenos Aires where they tour the city, have a tango lesson, and watch a tango show; go to an Argentinian soccer game; spend a day on a Gaucho ranch and eat amazing food. Then, they spend a two-week homestay with host families, attend classes at IAE, and spend a weekend at a camp with their host students. In September of the same year, MICDS welcomes the Argentinian students and their chaperones for a two-week homestay and school visit.

MICDS Latin faculty members accompany students to Italy or Greece to study ancient Roman or Greek civilization. The itinerary differs from year to year, but trips to Italy begin in Rome, where the group visits sights including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Museums, the Pantheon, and Ostia Antica. Other stops in Italy may include Campania, Tuscany, and/or Venice. Trips to Greece include visits to Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Mycena, and a Greek island.

The two-week MICDS Peru Service and Learning Program combines community service with hands-on learning in a language immersion environment. Students provide community service in several areas, including a rural school in Cusco, an orphanage in Chincha, and a clinic sponsored by the Peruvian American Medical Society (PAMS) in Chincha, where they work side-by-side with American doctors on a mission trip with teachers in orphanages and local schools. Students help in any way they might be needed, which may include: assisting doctors during patient visits, translating for non-Spanish speaking doctors, directing patients in the hospital, working in the pharmacy, organizing donations, stocking supplies, filing paperwork, helping to prepare food or playing with the children.

In addition to community service, students are exposed to Peruvian culture by taking traditional weaving and dance lessons, visiting the capital city of Lima, and touring Incan ruins in and around Cusco, including Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, one of the seven New Wonders of the World.

Background of MICDS involvement with PAMS Health Clinic in Chincha, Peru

On August 15, 2007, a devastating earthquake struck the central coast of Peru, with the epicenter located 25 miles from the city of Chincha, a small town south of Lima. Over 100 hospitals were affected and 14 were destroyed, severely disrupting health care delivery to the people in that area. Peruvian-American Spanish teacher Ines Shultz reached out for help to the then Head of the Lower School, Michael Ebeling, who, as a result, initiated the annual MICDS collection for Pennies for Peru.

The first MICDS collection was donated to the Peruvian American Medical Society (PAMS) to help with the construction of a new PAMS Medical Clinic in the city of Chincha. Since 2007, MICDS Pennies for Peru collections have continued to help rebuild and further outfit the clinic in Chincha, as well as purchase Leukemia medication for a young girl from the Andes; buy bulk food and supplies for orphanages, nursing homes, and schools in Cusco and Chincha, and contribute towards the purchase of the first dental X-ray machine at the new dental until of the Chincha Clinic.

MICDS Upper School students are eligible to apply for summer, semester, or year-long study abroad opportunities through AFS, during which time they will live with a host family, take a full load of classes, and be fully immersed in the language and culture of the country. Such experiences inspire global understanding, citizenry, and leadership as students learn by understanding diverse perspectives and communicating across cultures.

For more information on studying abroad through AFS, please visit http://www.afsusa.org/.

MICDS has a long-standing relationship with Swiss Semester, a study abroad program of academic, personal, and physical challenge, located in Zermatt, Switzerland. Each year, MICDS freshmen are invited to apply to spend the fall of their sophomore year at Swiss Semester. While there, they experience outdoor activities in the mountains and take a full course load of rigorous academic classes that incorporate the surroundings, outdoor activities, student development, and school travel in the course material.

For more information, please visit http://www.swisssemester.org/.

Students spend approximately three weeks in South Africa, visiting the major cities and sights of Johannesburg and Cape Town, exploring South Africa’s cultural diversity, learning about conservation efforts, and studying the history of apartheid. Other activities include but are not limited to participating in game drives, bush walks, conservation efforts in the Greater Kruger Area, and volunteering in a school in Cape Town.

AP Art History students have the opportunity to spend three days in Chicago in April with MICDS Fine Arts faculty members touring numerous art exhibits and landmarks to prepare for the AP Art History Exam. Each of the museums contains collections that cover a significant portion of the material studied in the AP Art History Class. The itinerary includes the Art Institute of Chicago, a walking tour of Chicago architecture and public sculptures, Millennium Park, the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House, Rockefeller Chapel, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Field Museum.

MICDS is a member of The Network of Complementary Schools, Inc., a group of schools that understands the importance of providing students with a diversity of experiences. Many of these programs are structured to draw upon a special strength or resource of a particular school and, therefore, focus on a single area of interest. Other programs simply present students with the opportunity to experience an academic and geographic community completely different from that of their home school.

MICDS students may participate in Network exchange programs for a period of one to two weeks. During that time, they live with local host families or in school dormitories. While on a Network program, students interact with students from the host school and may meet students from other Network schools as well. The timeframe spent at the Network school would be negotiated between the MICDS Director of Global Learning, the Network school, and the MICDS student applicant. For a list of member schools, please click here.

The International Expo is a biennial school-wide event that promotes, honors, and celebrates MICDS’ cultural diversity with a multicultural family fun event to help MICDS students and families embrace all the world’s people with compassion. The entire MICDS community is invited to visit and learn about the cultures and traditions of more than 40 countries through a cultural show, interactive activities, educational displays, artifacts, and food tastings. Stations for each country represented are hosted by Parent and Student Ambassadors. The Expo is a joint collaboration between the MICDS Parents Association Passport Committee and the Upper School International Council.

The International Council seeks to improve global and cultural understanding and acceptance of MICDS’s growing diversity. Members organize events on campus that showcase the variety of world cultures, languages, and customs of MICDS families and people in the St. Louis area. They assist International Programs by welcoming and acting as ambassadors to exchange students at MICDS. They research and attend local cultural festivals and find practical opportunities to use their world language skills. Members promote greater communication and cultural awareness within MICDS through the use of The Ram Report, The Voice, and their student newsletter, The Global Local.

Through the MICDS Parents Association, parents have the opportunity to be involved in global learning and culture sharing through a parent-driven organization called the Passport Committee. Throughout the year, the Passport Committee offers a Passport Series of educational, cultural, and social events for international and internationally-minded families to mix and exchange ideas. These events offer families opportunities to celebrate and share cultures through education, music, art, theater, dance, visual arts, food and fun, with the ultimate goal of fostering and building a globally-minded parent community.