 BGA strengthens ties to Chinese school with spring break trip
By MINDY TATE, Editor
mtate@williamsonherald.com
For most of students and teachers, spring break is a rest from learning, but for 15 students and their chaperones from Battle Ground Academy, spring break was filled with discovery and learning as part of a trip to China.
The catalyst behind the trip was the establishment of a student exchange program between the 120-year-old private college preparatory school in Franklin and the Ocean University Affiliated Middle School, which is a public school in Qingdao, a seaside city in the Shandong province of the People’s Republic of China.
“It really originated with our exchange student, Saisai Song, who is in her third year with us at BGA and will graduate this spring,” said Scott Parrish, BGA’s vice president of advancement, who served as one of three chaperones for the trip. “(BGA President) Bill Mott and I went to China about 1 1/2 years ago to talk to her parents and this is what they wanted to do to celebrate the education Saisai has gotten in the United States.”
Song, who was with her classmates during the trip, came to BGA at a time when the school was trying to “explore the world,” Parrish said. Her parents wanted her to study in the United States and met Nashville attorney Dorothy Frist, who worked with BGA parent Adrian Altshuler, who sold Frist and the Songs on BGA.
“It came at a time when BGA was open to exploring the world,” Parrish said of Saisai’s arrival at BGA. “We have had exchange students for a number of years, but more European, no Asian students, and that really started as an exchange student program, but Saisai elected to stay and become a full-time student.”
Within the last five years, BGA has opened its doors to students from Turkey, Mexico, Germany, China, Spain and more countries from around the world. Saisai has been joined this year by another student from Qingdao, a young man named Yong, whose intent is to stay three years and graduate from BGA as well, Parrish said.
Anne Laverty, a BGA senior, was one of the 15 students who made the trip.
“This trip connected me with students from a country thousands of miles around the world,” Laverty said. “The most important knowledge I gained from my 12-day visit was that the students in China, the students in America, American families, Chinese families, my host sister, and myself, though we look different and speak completely different languages and celebrate different traditions and come from two very different parts of the world, we are actually the same.”
Parrish had visited China in an earlier trip so he didn’t have the culture shock some students experience, but said this trip also had some formality to it.
“This was a very diplomatic-type trip,” Parrish said, adding there were lots of government people there, a lot of ceremony and speeches “regarding the bridge between our students today will be the bridge of our leaders tomorrow.”
Ocean University Affiliated Middle School is a public school with 2,800 students in six grades, which would be our seventh through 12th grades, Parrish said. He spent a lot of time in classrooms, observing and interacting with students and faculty.
“I would say they are kind and generous beyond expectation,” Parrish said, adding that he means to the smallest detail. “I spent a lot of time in classroom and this one boy was digging through his backpack because he wanted to give me a gift. He found this flashlight that his mother had given him from a trip she had gone on and he gave it to me because he wanted to give me a gift.
“There is a real thirst for communication and relationships with the United States by the students. They clearly recognize our education system, at least in their minds, to be superior to theirs,” Parrish said.
Students from Ocean University Affiliated Middle School will visit BGA and Middle Tennessee in August, Parrish said.
“We are considering creating a Mandarin Chinese curriculum in our language department, that could begin in 2009 school year,” Parrish said. “That will give us an opportunity to have more meaningful exchanges with school in Qingdao. Their students speak pretty good English and that is the only foreign language they teach in their schools.”
The Chinese students have a very structured school schedule, Laverty said, so she looks forward to showing them BGA and other American educational experiences.
“I was intrigued by the lack of choice in each student's school schedule,” Laverty said. “Students take a structured class schedule together with the exception of a few students taking pre-determined specialty classes (like art). Also, I was shocked that almost every student I talked to had a Chinese-to-English language translator on their cell phone.”
Another difference for students will be the size of cities and the openness of America.
“Obviously I know that China has a huge population, but I didn't expect for all the cities to be so large and comprised of so many buildings and roads,” Laverty said, pointing out that Qingdao is a medium-sized city but it was still at least as big as any major city in America, she said.
“I think the students will be most surprised by all of the open space in Franklin and the relaxed atmosphere that Franklin has to offer compared to the fast-paced cities in China,” Laverty said. “I can't wait to take them to American restaurants that aren't fast food and to show them the many historic landmarks that exist in Franklin from the Civil War.”
Posted on: 3/27/2008
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