Mid-March is go time for Catlin Gabel’s global education program. Five groups, three from the Upper School and two from the Middle School, are spread across three continents.

Upper School students are traveling to Guatemala, France, and China.

Middle School students are traveling to Costa Rica and Taiwan.

» Visit the global education section of the website for trip details and to follow student blog posts 

Catlin Gabel is honored to welcome exchange students to our community each year. Our exchange students are carefully selected merit scholars who are ready for Catlin Gabel’s academic and linguistic challenges.

We host these kids with the goal of learning as much from them as we can. Our community benefits deeply as our exchange students push us to question assumptions and broaden our perspectives. If you are interested in hosting an exchange student, please read our Q&A and contact Spencer White with questions.

Year-Long Upper School Exchange Students

Belén Placencia Levenfeld, from Spain, is 15 years old and comes to us through the ASSIST program, which selects students by merit for placement in U.S. independent schools. She will attend CG as a sophomore for the entire academic year. Her interviewers said that, “Belén (or Belu) will bring to her American school a sharp mind, a strong work ethic, and an impressive record of academic achievement. Belén also has strong athletic interests and talents. In addition, she thoroughly enjoys acting in school drama productions, is currently attending an acting school in Madrid, and even thinks of theater as something she would like to have at the center of her adult life. We found Belu to be an adventurous girl, with sharp sense of humor evident, very pleasant and engaging, with lots of interests.”

Xiaotian Zhang, from Shanghai, China, also comes to us through the ASSIST program. She is an all-star student at Fudan High School with a penchant for international relations and English. Xiaotian has traveled to Great Britain and Japan and is involved in singing, ballet, traditional Chinese dance, street dance, and ceramics. She participates in MUN, is a member of the school debate team, and is a cheerleader. In her personal statement Xiaotian says, “My dreams are simple but require resolute determination and constant hard work. I want to make the world a better place. I want the world to see me one day.”

Mpho Bowie-Molefe comes to us from Maru-a-Pula School (MaP) in Gaborone, Botswana, as our sixth MaP Scholar. Our relationship with MaP has been one of mutual respect and admiration as they continue to send us globally minded students of impressively high academic and interpersonal caliber. Mpho is here for the entire 12th grade academic year. “Mpho is a rare quality student,” said his interviewers. “He is wonderfully engaging, admired by his peers and a perceptive and capable learner. It is not often that you find students as well balanced as Mpho is; he is a star athlete on the school rugby team and an effortless, academically capable student that is always willing to give of himself.” Mpho is dedicated to several community service projects, including a service project where he taught primary school children in a disadvantaged area of Gaborone how to read. He has been part of a group of senior students who raised funds and delivered food packages and grocery items to poor families on the outskirts of the city. Mpho would like to become an engineer with a specific focus on developing green energy technologies for Africa.

Short-Term Guatemalan Upper School Students
Experiencias Interculturales Program
October 21 – December 15

Luis Esteban Greñas Vettorazzi, 15, will spend two months as part of our freshman class. He is excited to spend time with a “real” American family, improve his English skills, and experience Portland culture. Luis is a photographer, the main journalist of his school newspaper, and a lover of nature and animals. He is a determined and outspoken young man who’s not afraid to speak his mind on any number of topics.

Andrea María Reyes López, 17, will join our junior class. Her parents, both in the medical field, are eager for Andrea to take this step toward independence, improve her English skills, and meet American peers. She was class president last year and this year, school council president. She is described as “concerned about others,” as seen in her consistent weekend trips to see both sets of grandparents. She is also a dancer, an artist, and a lover of music.

Short-Term Guatemalan Middle School Students
Experiencias Interculturales Program
October 21 – December 15

Xim-Mei Ju Li, 13, is one of two Guatemalan students who will spend two months in our Middle School as a 7th grader during her own summer vacation. Xim is trilingual in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Her interests include tennis, soccer, squash, racquetball, reading, and watching movies. She loves Taylor Swift and everything country music. Xim wants to augment her global travels (having been to China once) and improve her English.

Jorge José Trujillo Herrera, 14, will join us as an 8th grader. Jorge is especially keen on staying with a family with a host brother. He has a mellow demeanor, is a natural athlete, and takes a lot of pride in balancing his academics with sports. Jorge comes from a close-knit family that is involved with the church and spending ample time with their extended family. He is eager to improve his English ability in his 60-day stay with us.

March 2012 will mark the third trip for Catlin Gabel’s 7th and 8th grade French students to Sainte-Marie, a town on the Caribbean island of Martinique. Similarly, middle schoolers from Le Collège Emmanuel Saldès of Sainte-Marie have come to Portland twice. What our young travelers learn as guests in the home of their famille d’accueil (host family) serves them well when it is their turn to host the following year. The experience gives more meaning to the word “empathy” and fosters serious reflection on being on both the receiving and giving end of an exchange.

A brief historical perspective

 Martinique was a French colony until 1946. In 2003, it was named a French Région d’outre-mer (overseas region). Slavery was abolished in Martinique in 1846, but discriminatory practices lingered until 1946. The scars, though fading, are still part of the collective memory of the majority, the Martiniquans of color. French is the official language, but créole, the language spoken by all Martiniquans of color, is given the proper consideration as a legitimate language. The small white minority continues to control nearly all of the island’s economy. When visiting Martinique, my students become aware of how this Caribbean culture was shaped, that the grandparents of their host brother or sister grew up in a very different Martinique, and that this past has had an effect on the family they are visiting.

Pre-trip, on-site, and post-trip work

We also address the bigger question of what the term citizen of the world means to these students. We go through a list of resiliency tools that each one of us can find within ourselves at various times. For example, everyone can relate to the meaning of patience, assertiveness, honesty, kindness, respect, humor, courage, detachment, consideration, flexibility, and gentleness. We may not be able to practice each one all the time, nor all at once, but if we can remind ourselves that we do have the option (or the opportunity!) to use one of these tools at various times of need, we will most likely end up feeling empowered, less stuck, and able to move on. We talk about possible testy situations that might come up during the stay and then consider which tools would be most helpful to get through these.

“You don’t really know what life is like in a new place until you live it, and staying with a family teaches you a lot.” —Student traveler

“While I was there, I thought the best times were just hanging out with my American friends doing something fun, or watching something beautiful. But now that I look back on it, I think that the best times really were just being dorky with my home stay and really connecting with her family. When we were able to connect, we could really understand each other despite the language barrier.” —Student traveler

From the Fall 2011 Caller

By Siobhan Furnary '13

We strutted along the cracked sidewalk for about one and a half miles until we arrived at the school. It was the first time I’d seen a cloudy, hazy sky during our time in Kaolack, Senegal, a rural town populated by about 172,000 Senegalese.

Catlin Gabel now makes it possible, through financial aid funds, for every Middle and Upper School student to participate in at least one global education trip abroad during their years at Catlin Gabel.

From the Fall 2011 Caller

Botswana 2011: An Education About Education

By Fiona Noonan '12

This summer, a group of 13 Upper School students accompanied by our chaperones, science teacher Aline Garcia-Rubio ’93 and Richard Kassissieh, director of technology and learning innovation, traveled to Botswana for a trip that primarily revolved around interacting with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Since Botswana is the country with the second-highest HIV infection rate in the world, we aimed to educate ourselves about the virus and its ramifications—and to help those affected by it—to the extent possible. To achieve that end we tutored and played with HIV-positive children, painted a mural at a pediatric HIV clinic called the Botswana-Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence, and engaged in dialogues with teens and adults about the effects of HIV and AIDS on Botswana’s culture and society. However, the unifying theme of all these activities extended beyond connections to HIV/AIDS. Each of our discussions, interactions, and services exposed us to something even greater: education.

Catlin Gabel now makes it possible, through financial aid funds, for every Middle and Upper School student to participate in at least one global education trip abroad during their years at Catlin Gabel.