Wyoming Seminary's ivy-covered buildings and sheltered suburban location might suggest insularity to some, but this independent school in northeastern Pennsylvania has quietly developed a reputation over the last few decades not only for educating international students but for rethinking the role of international students in American boarding schools. Today, students from 23 countries join American students from 14 states and the District of Columbia to form a global campus community that is enlivened and enriched by diversity, divergent opinions, and shared experiences. Sem - as the Wyoming Seminary community refers to the school - also attracts a broad array of students from diverse economic and political systems, thus enhancing its mission of fostering a free exchange of ideas in a world where nations now look well beyond their own borders.
Spurred on by the momentum of a program that seems to build on itself, Sem is also now openly focused on providing all of its students with a sense of the global community they will most likely face as they pursue their careers. "More than before, we must provide our students with a global perspective and with open, unbiased minds that respect - rather than judge - characteristics that make the people of one culture different from those of another," says Jack Eidam, Sem's dean of admission and director of international and summer programs.
The Modern Era of the International Student
While its history of seeking out international students has long been a hallmark of the school, the international program's "modern era" began in the 1980s, when Wyoming Seminary first accepted American students from Saudi Arabia and witnessed, firsthand, their contributions to the academic and cultural life of the school. At the same time, the school broadened its base of students arriving from Asia - particularly Japan and South Korea. In the mid-1990s, Sem became the school of choice for young Thai scholars - about 75 a summer - who were sent to the States for study by Thailand's Ministry of Education. The Thai government paid full tuition for these students.
But increasingly, Sem, like many independent schools, found itself no longer content to sit back and deal with a few families from distant, affluent cultures. Instead, the school made a conscious commitment to build a diverse campus community that would foster a free exchange of ideas. A shift in the focus of the school had begun.
A pivotal force in moving the program forward and broadening its reach is Jack Eidam. Under his direction, and with the support of Sem president Jere Packard, the school has taken a leading role in committing itself to the new wave of students coming in from Eastern and Central Europe, as well as to securing for many of them the necessary financial aid to get them to the Wyoming Valley. Eidam hits the road two months of the year, interviewing promising students in hotels, living rooms, and classrooms across the world. The ordained minister definitely brings a sense of mission to the task before him. As one teacher says, "Jack has a sense of morality, stability, and expectation that the international students immediately sense." He is also interested in leaving behind the days where financial aid to international students came in the form of a rare scholarship funded by special interest benefactors.
Much of Sem's success in attracting this new wave of students has been accomplished in conjunction with the ASSIST program, a nonprofit organization founded in the 1960s to promote cross-cultural exchange. Thanks in part to ASSIST and its recruiting network in Europe, the school has seen an influx of students from Germany, Estonia, Croatia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. These students have quickly gained a reputation for their graceful command of the English language, their strong academic potential, and their commitment to studying in the United States. They are also known for their ability to assimilate easily into the campus community, often serving as a "bridge" between American students and other international students, especially since their oral and written English skills are quite advanced.
A case in point is a trio of students who came to Sem from the Czech Republic. Collectively, ice hockey players Martin Moucha, Zdenek Havelka, and Jan Macha seemed to know one word in English - "hockey" - upon their arrival in the States. Two years later, they amazed their teachers when they discussed the more esoteric subject of tragedy in The Tragic Muse, a challenging, team-taught course that examines the origins of tragedy from Ancient Greece to its modern interpretation in Miller's Death of a Salesman. The student athletes, as part of a classroom presentation, drew upon the archetypal nature of children's stories from their native Czechoslovakia, impressing their teachers as they skillfully drew parallels between the children's fables of their youth and the tragedies they had recently studied in class. Their classroom presentation was as sophisticated as any given by native speakers, according to teacher Mary Ann Hopkins.
A New Wave of Students... A New Motivation
While Eidam notes a new attitude toward international students, he also observes that today's students come to Sem with a slightly different motivation than their predecessors did. In the past, some international students - even those from countries with strong educational systems - were drawn to American schools because their own systems seemed narrow and regimented. On the other hand, the American educational system was increasingly perceived as challenging students to think rather than to simply memorize, to synthesize ideas and viewpoints from several different sources in order to develop independent thinking. While international students continue to respect the quality of American education, there is a marked difference in their motivation. Increasingly, they place equal priority on learning English, which replaces French as the international language of choice. When proficiency in oral and written English becomes the primary objective of international students, other countries (Great Britain, New Zealand, and Canada) become competitors in meeting this demand, especially if they can provide it more economically and in a safer environment. This, Eidam says, presents a challenge to America's independent schools.
Sem has met this challenge by developing a sophisticated, world-renowned ESL Program. "Summer at Sem," initiated in 1991, teaches language, American culture, and the culture of American academia in a relaxed environment that his campus can provide in the summer months. Another part of the summer program - The Performing Arts Institute (PAI) - attracts musicians and dancers from around the world. PAI students hail from Britain, Hungary, Russia, and South Korea, while their teachers may have roots in Germany, Canada, Wales, Russia, the Ukraine, China, and Japan. This offers international students a rare opportunity to celebrate their diversity in a low-stress environment.
The Benefits of Diversity
While the international students benefit from their experiences at Sem, the American students are equal beneficiaries of the cultural experience generated by the new wave of international students. And this is no accident. Indeed, the school promotes this mutually symbiotic relationship. After all, international and domestic students alike share the common experience of growing up, of working together as part of a team, and of dealing with sometimes stressful classroom situations. They critique the same novels, dance to the same R&B music, and complain - like students everywhere - about the dining hall food.
The benefits of diversity weave their way into every aspect of campus life. "We have kids whose parents were actually born in Siberia - who were exiled there," says Eidam. "We have German students who have lived through re-unification and students who have grown up under communist political and economic systems." What they bring to the classroom is enlightening, often generating lively discussion and debate, and enriches the experience for all.
The story of one such lively classroom debate was recounted in the commencement address of Sem alumnus Mike Packard, a recent Harvard graduate. He told the story of a South Korean student who, in an introductory U.S. History course, commented that is was regrettable that Korea was not unified. Had the Americans not intervened in 1950 in the Korean War, the student argued, Korea might be unified today. A young Czech student in the classroom soon offered a rather chilling rejoinder to the South Korean's argument. Had Korea been unified in 1950, he countered, it would have been unified under a very harsh communist dictatorship, leaving the South Koreans in dire circumstances. The Czech then shared with classmates his grandmother's recollections of the repressions, dislocations, and requisitions of property that took place in the Czech Republic following the communist takeover in 1948. "The Korean students gained an important insight from this classroom exchange," says Packard, "and it was most significant that they gained it from a fellow student of a very different culture and background."
David Davies, dean of the upper school at Sem, finds that American students have become more adventurous in their own travel as a result of their experiences with international students. "Our kids see Czech kids studying here for nine months, and they say to themselves, ‘Hey, I can do that!'" he says. The school's hockey team recently traveled to the Czech Republic. The school's Madrigal Singers have traveled to Germany, and other students have participated in an academic exchange program in Argentina.
Facing the Challenge of Cultural Differences
Having survived ESL classes, students who land in public-speaking classes at Sem can face a challenge of a different sort. Americans generally show to the world an aggressive gaze and an engaging body language, says Hopkins. This is in stark contrast to Asians, who have been taught for generations to show humility and to avoid "calling attention to oneself." In public speaking, Asian students are often forced to learn how to adopt prolonged eye contact. This, in turn, inspires discussion of cultural differences. Suddenly, American students realize that the challenges they face in the arena of public speaking pale in comparison to obstacles faced by their international counterparts.
According to teachers, it is often the international student who gives the American student the gift of perspective. A Japanese student, treating the class to a passage of Othello read in his native Japanese, gives his classmates a rare taste for the zest and color of his language. Likewise, a student from Zimbabwe, dancing, chanting, and praying in front of the classroom to show how he honors his ancestors, might open the eyes of students who may not take the task of an oral presentation quite so seriously.
International students find opportunities to mingle with the larger community through such traditional American pursuits as a Fourth of July celebration at nearby Kirby Park. Counselor Jane Slaff remembers chaperoning some 150 international students to the local park for a fireworks celebration and concert. She noticed how eagerly many local people from the surrounding community - particularly seniors - approached the students, engaging them in stories of their own travels. "The people in this valley do react positively to the kids," says Slaff.
On the other hand, there is always room for improvement in the area of cultural awareness and understanding. David Davies laughs as he tells the story of a junior varsity soccer game in which the local referee addressed a cluster of players - among them, students from the Czech Republic, Korea, Taiwan, Ghana, and Russia. As the sun set on the field, the referee asked, "Can you boys see the ball?" Receiving no response, he shouted the question again and again. Finally, in exasperation, he turned to the parents on the sideline and asked sarcastically, "What! Am I speaking a different language or something?" Indeed he was.
Once it is time to return home, international students may face a different sort of dilemma. Teacher Mary Ann Hopkins, who keeps in touch with many students long after they return home, recalls a few Central European and Indian students who just plain missed the special attention they received while studying at Sem. "They just missed that feeling that so much was made of them," she says. The one-on-one attention students receive can strike them as unfamiliar and strange, as it did for a young French student who recently drew stark comparisons between the nurturing attitude of her current teachers and the more stern, "sink or swim" attitude of the teachers in her native France.
Often, the global experience at Wyoming Seminary can touch students long after they leave the Wyoming Valley. In February 2000, nine Sem alumni from various parts of Hungary and Slovakia convened, despite a national train strike, in Budapest to support Jack Eidam's student recruitment efforts. One of them, reflecting upon that reunion, later wrote, "In one single moment, I was taken back to Wyoming Seminary. We talked about teachers, teachers' children, teachers' dogs. We talked and talked. What did this reunion mean to us? More than anything else it made us realize that no distance, no cultural difference, no time difference, and no business can disturb a strong and deep friendship if we are willing to preserve it."
It was the kind of message that pleases Jack Eidam, yet it has hardly tempered his enthusiasm for change. He and president Jere Packard are already looking beyond the present, seeking ways to attract more students from yet another corner of the world: Latin America. After all, there's always room for more diversity.