Newton high schools hold benefit to send kids abroad

March 9, 2010 by Newton Tab

Newton South Principal Joel Stembridge firmly believes his entire life changed after he participated in a foreign student exchange program.

“When I was a junior in high school, I became involved with an exchange program that included hosting a student from Germany, followed by my spending three weeks in Germany with my host family,” he said. “I will never forget it, or the changes it brought to my life and how I look at the world.”

The experience gave him a perspective he said he would not otherwise have and will stay with him for the rest of his life.

All Newton students should be able to have such an opportunity, Stembridge said.

“For years now, Newton South and Newton North have offered extraordinary opportunities to extend their learning in international settings,” he said. “But these programs were not always truly accessible to all. Not only have financial circumstances meant that certain students could not entertain the idea of travel, but the rest of our students were deprived of the important contributions these students could make to our study abroad groups.”

Stembridge wants the entire community to help convince Newton’s students that no one should tune out when these travel-learning opportunities are announced. One way to help, he said, is to attend a benefit on March 12 at the Neighborhood Club in West Newton, beginning at 7 p.m. The event will include a six-course tasting menu inspired by the various international regions Newton’s scholarship students have explored. Musical talent will be showcased, and hosts and servers for the evening include Stembridge and Newton North Principal Jennifer Price, Board of Aldermen President Scott Lennon and interim Superintendent of Schools Jim Marini.

Tickets are $125 per person, and 100 percent of that tax-deductible price will benefit students who would not otherwise be able to participate in the global study program.

The Global Education Leadership Fund — a collaboration between the Newton Schools Foundation and the two high schools — raises scholarship money for students who could not otherwise afford to study in international settings.

Tory Filler, program development associate for the Newton Schools Foundation, said the group took on the program a few years ago. She said scholarships are based on students’ needs and the cost of a given trip.

“Students apply for funding, and we look at their family’s finances and if they’ve ever traveled before,” Filler said. “We give scholarships anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000.”

For the 2009-2010 school year, Filler said 23 students were given scholarships. The largest was $2,100.

Price said the foundation began a few years ago when she was speaking at an educational event. “I was talking about how a large percent of our students can’t afford to participate in the travel-learning opportunities,” she said. “Within two weeks, people had donated over $10,000, which we used to create the fund.”

The interesting thing, Price said, is that she didn’t even ask for any money.

Stembridge believes living in another country for three weeks gave him the courage to leave his hometown in Oregon, attend college in Chicago and then move to New England with his wife years later where they didn’t know a soul.

“For me, that was the start of gaining the courage to take risks, including becoming a high school principal,” he said. “It has everything to do with why I became a person who wanted to experience things other than life in Oregon.”

Students who have been on trips abroad also say their experience changed their lives and how they view things.

Hallie Boviard, a senior at Newton South, went to Peru in February 2009 for 16 days through the community service and cultural exchange program. She attended classes during the day and worked at a girls’ orphanage in the afternoon.

“The experience made me realize how much I take for granted living here,” Boviard said. “Working with those girls taught me how much I have in my life.”

She plans to go back to Peru as soon as she can to do whatever she can to help. “The trip helped me realize that one really can make a difference in others’ lives,” Boviard said. “It was an eye-opener in many different ways, and I realized how important it is to experience other cultures before you can truly understand your own.”

Taryn Valley, also a senior at Newton South, spent nine days last month in Panama and Costa Rica. In April, she will be traveling to India with the chorus.

“I’m a firm believer that travel can change one’s life,” she said. “It opens your eyes to other cultures and other ways of living.”

When she was in Panama, Valley said, the group interacted a lot with locals and got to know people and how they viewed their own lives.

What struck her, Valley said, is she met a man who said he had relatives in the United States but would never want to live here.

“He said he was happy with the way his life was in Panama and had plans to live a healthy life so he could reach 100 years old,” Valley said. “It was interesting to see that in Panama the quality of life is more important to people than money or success as it is here for so many people in the United States.”