Travel Opportunities

CHATHAM HALL RETURNS TO SOUTH AFRICA
Learn more about this exciting & unique opportunity.


Study Abroad: Language Study/Home-Stay Program

Take your learning experience abroad with Chatham Hall’s study abroad program – and receive a trimester credit of 1/3 hour!

Our language study/home-stay program is open to foreign language students. During the last two weeks of June, French students can travel to Amboise, France; Spanish students to Seville, Spain; and Italian students to Rome, Italy. Faculty members accompany each group. The cost is approximately $4,000, which covers all expenses except some means and personal spending money.

France

Amboise is a city of 10,000 in the province of La Touraine, France’s "Chateau Country." A lovely, traditional town, Amboise is the site of Leonardo da Vinci’s house and tomb. Residents enjoy their own chateau, a lively market, and many small boutiques and cafes, as well as canoeing and kayaking on the Loire River and bicycling throughout the beautiful region. La Touraine is recognized as the province where the “purest French” is spoken and where wonderful gardens and rivers help to produce world-famous cuisine.
Chatham Hall students will live with French families chosen by the Eurocentre language school and attend classes Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. In the afternoons, they will be accompanied by chaperones for sightseeing, shopping, and other adventures before returning to their host families for dinner and family time. The program, which also includes weekend excursions, will culminate with an event-packed weekend in Paris. For more information, contact Mary Lee Black at 434.432.2941, Ext. 204, or mblack@chathhamhall.org.

Spain

Spanish study-abroad students will travel to Sevilla, one of Spain's most historic and beautiful places. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucia in southern Spain and sits on the Guadalquivir River. Controlled for several centuries by the Moors, the city is a mixture of Arabic and Christian architecture and boasts the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Chatham Hall students will live with a family in Sevilla and spend two weeks in classes taught by Spaniards at the Centro de Lenguas e Intercambio (CLIC), which is located in a beautifully restored 18th century manor home. During afternoons and evenings, they will enjoy cultural programs including visits to museums, cooking classes, and lessons to learn the sevillano (an offshoot of Flamenco dancing). The Spain program also includes excursions to Madrid, Granada, and Córdoba.

For more information, contact Kim Jackson at 434.432.2941, Ext. 276, or kjackson@chathamhall.org.

Italy

The Italy trip starts in Rome, accommodations with a local bed & breakfast.
The group will tour the city and will focus on sites such as the Forum, the Coliseum, and the Pantheon; with planned visits to the Vatican, the Etruscan Villa Giulia museum, and the Capitoline Museum.
One day will be spent on a special excursion to Tivoli.
Following time in Rome, the group will travel to Florence by train to meet the host families in whose houses we will stay for the remainder of the excursion. Meals will be taken both with the host families and at a variety of local restaurants. During the weekdays, there will be daily lessons dealing with Florentine art and culture in addition to introductory Italian language and conversation. While in Florence, there will be visits to the Uffizi Museum, the Santa Maria Novella church, the Duomo, the Galleria Palatina and many other sites. There will also be day-long excursions to Siena and Pisa.
For more information, contact Blair Overstreet at: boverstreet@chathamhall.org.

Experiment In International Living

Chatham Hall has also developed an exciting partnership allowing students to experience living abroad through the Experiment in International Living program. Students are selected after filling out an extensive 17-page application describing where they want to go and why, what they think it would it be like to spend time in a culture they had never experienced, and their thoughts on things like communication, art, and music. Applications were open to Chatham Hall sophomores and juniors.
Three Chatham Hall students participated in the summer of 2009. Lillian Calhoun ’11 traveled to Belize where she participated in several community service projects, such as helping to build a school playground.  Ardra Hren ’11 traveled to France. After a three-day orientation in Paris she traveled to Avignon where she spent 17 days enjoying the Avignon Theater Festival. At the end of the program, she returned to Paris to participate in the production of a play in French. Alyssa Edes ’10 spent her time in the Republic of Korea, exploring both the contemporary challenges and the ancient traditions of the culture-rich nation. She traveled throughout the country visiting both major cities and rural areas to learn about the language, traditions, and music.
All three students also experienced the cultures of their countries through home-stays with host families.
The program continued the summer of 2010 with Sandra De Anda '11 traveling to South America, Elizabeth Ferlise '11 traveling to France and Catherine Merwin exploring China.
Chatham Hall looks forward to developing this exciting new partnership and offering even more opportunities for students to truly be citizens of the world.