With the help of SPIRAL International and Mind Education, a Beijing-based Chinese educational company specializing in the organization of travel studies, Grand Isle Elementary Middle School in northern Vermont is embarking on an adventure with Zhengzhou (“Djung-djaou”) Foreign Language Elementary School, located about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing.The schools will launch their first student e-mail exchange project “Hand in Hand, We Celebrate Chinese New Year Together” on January 28th. The project starts with casual conversations which will lead to increased cultural awareness and comprehension. Students and teachers from both schools will not only be able to share their daily lives, they will also form real friendships.
Both schools are eager to begin the correspondence, particularly since the New Year celebration in China (also known as the Spring Festival) is an enormously significant part of Chinese tradition which makes this an especially meaningful event for the Chinese and American students to share. In addition, both principals are already brainstorming about ways for the students to actually meet face-to-face. Even now, Zhengzhou principal Garcia Chen is planning to bring a group of his students to Grand Isle for two weeks this summer. And Grand Isle principal Eric Arnzen is thinking about a reciprocal trip in summer 2018.
This exciting project is school-driven, born of the meeting of the 2 principals at a conference in Beijing last fall. The role of Spiral and Mind Education has been to provide continued support and resources – both linguistic and logistical – to create a bridge between the two schools, and help bring the program to life.
Founded in 2006, Mind Education is China’s leading travel study company. The firm specializes in summer and winter camps, and now offers more than 200 different types of study tours, domestic and worldwide, to 170,000 Chinese students per year. In spring 2016, SPIRAL and Mind Education established a strategic partnership. “Hand in Hand, We Celebrate Chinese New Year Together” is the first student exchange program between sister schools to be created and supported by SPIRAL and Mind Education working together.