Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Community School seeks international students

‘Residential program’ to provide family setting for new recruits


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

At 6 feet, 9 inches tall, Daniel Gomis, a native of Senegal, Africa, towers over fifth-graders at a fundraising event last year at the Community School. The school is working to implement a residential program for next year to recruit more international exchange students such as Gomis. Photo by Mountain Express

The Community School wants to recruit more international athletes and scholars and is putting together a "residential program" to give the kids a home-like place to stay.

The program is intended to be in place by the start of the next school year. The plan is to rent a home or two and staff them full-time, preferably with a married couple.

It won't be coed—boys will live at one home and girls at the other.

"There will be 24/7 supervision, hopefully to create a family-type setting," said Lisa Stelck, director of external relations at the private school in Sun Valley.

Plans for next year are to have the program up and running to accommodate six to eight students.

"We would like to eventually get to 20 to 25 students," she said.

Stelck explained that the residential program isn't just for students from other countries, and will likely involve students from other parts of the United States.

"We're looking for students that are competitive athletes and high academic achievers, and often those two things go hand in hand," she said.

Stelck said the Community School expects to draw athletes involved in ice skating, cross-country skiing and other sports for which quality training and competitive opportunities are available in the Wood River Valley. That way, she said, students can pursue their athletic aspirations and also get a good education.

The Community School expects to benefit also, by exposing its local students to new cultures, languages and attitudes.

The school uses Daniel Gomis as an example of how international students can benefit local education. Gomis, a Senegal native, was a junior at the school last year. At 6 feet, 9 inches tall, he was not only an asset to the boys' basketball team but also gave presentations about Senegal history to school classes, taught basketball skills in physical education classes, served as assistant coach to the middle school basketball team and tutored fifth-grade students in French.

School Head Andy Jones-Wilkins last year described Gomis as a "real asset to the community."

"It's one thing to read about Senegal in a book," Jones-Wilkins said. "It's something else to meet and get to know someone actually from Senegal."

Gomis lived with a local family during his stay in the Wood River Valley. Stelck said the residential program will offer the school the opportunity to bring even more students like Gomis to the school.

"We've been doing this one student at a time and it has been very successful," she said.

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com




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