Thanks to a partnership with Tsinghua University High
School in Beijing, China, 27 of the prestigious high school’s students traveled
to Asheville to dive into Asheville School’s nationally acclaimed Humanities
curriculum led by master teachers Tim Plaehn and Hannah Bonner 2006.
“Students are taking two humanities courses - an English
and a history course - and Explorations in English, where they’ll have
opportunities to do creative writing and watch 1920s films,” says Megan Grant,
director of the Asheville School Summer Program.
These Chinese students, most of whom are rising
sophomores, arrived with two chaperones from Beijing on July 12 and are living
on campus in theKehaya Residential Hall until August 1.
“We have six counselors, most of whom are Asheville
School alumni, who are running the after school activities and residential
programs, and helping with Explorations in English,” Grant says, who teaches
mathematics at Asheville School.
Aside from studying literature from America’s Jazz Age,
Grant says the students will also explore American culture through several
field trips in and around Asheville.
“We’re going to the Biltmore House and to the Thomas
Wolfe House, an Asheville Tourists baseball game, hiking, on a trolley tour,
and on collegevisits to UNC Asheville and Clemson University,” Grant says.
“We’re also planning on exploring downtown Asheville to see the Art Deco
architecture.”
Administrators at the Tsinghua University High School are
enthusiastic about having their students study in Asheville — especially at one
of the country’s highly ranked boarding schools. “This partnership will allow
Asheville School and Tsinghua to co-develop programs that will educate the
future leaders of the world,” said Wang Dianjun, Principal of Tsinghua High
School. “From Tsinghua, we really want to send our best students to this campus
to experience this premier boarding school and open their eyes to a new world.
We think it will help to foster 21st century future leaders.”
Head of School Arch Montgomery says he’s optimistic the
program will flourish for years to come.
“This first year will give a good indication of how this
relationship with Tsinghua might grow in future years,” Montgomery says. “The
school leaders at Tsinghua would like to expand the program, but we’re taking
it slow because we want to make sure everything we do is something we do well.”
Montgomery says the program definitely has a lot of
potential. If the program were to expand, Montgomery says it’s possible
Asheville School may send students who are studying Chinese to Tsinghua over
the summer.
“The result may be that being associated with Tsinghua
University raises our profile in China,” he says. “We get really strong
students from China now, but this partnership could guarantee that our students
from China are the best.”
For Grant, her hope is that these students leave
Asheville having had a positive American experience.
“I want them to have a positive impression of American
boarding schools and I want them to be challenged and have fun,” Grant says. “I
will be working behind the scenes to make sure every experience is fruitful and
meaningful for these young scholars. I hope they get a taste of what it’s like
to be an Asheville School student.”
Asheville School is a nationally acclaimed co-ed, college
preparatory boarding and day school for students in grades 9 through 12. The
285 students enrolled at Asheville School represent 20 states and 15 countries.
Recent graduates have been accepted to UNC-Chapel Hill, Harvard, Stanford,
Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, UCLA, Davidson, NC State,
University of Virginia, Emory, Duke, Wake Forest, and Yale among others.
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