by TAERI KIM and WRIGLEY ZBYSZEWSKI
After a three-year, COVID-related hiatus in exchanges with Chadwick’s sister school, cross-campus interactions have finally resumed.
Since 2010, Chadwick has been sharing its community with a school nearly 6,000 miles apart–Chadwick International, which is based in Songdo, South Korea.
About 1,200 students are currently enrolled in Chadwick International, representing various nationalities. The cultural diversity in the school allows students to embrace both local and global perspectives by teaching them to understand the similarities and differences between one another.
The opening of Chadwick International enabled Chadwick School students to engage in closer interactions with people from the opposite side of the world. Chadwick’s Global Education department had for years been providing opportunities for numerous academic and athletic exchanges between campuses for Middle and Upper School students, until the pandemic hit in March 2020, putting a temporary halt to the trips.
Chris Meisel and Vaulton Reece, sixth-grade English teachers at CS and CI, respectively, engaged in the Chadwick cross-campus collaboration in mid-February. Meisel hopped on a plane headed to Incheon, while Reece made the approximately 13-hour flight to Los Angeles International Airport.
They both enjoyed teaching personification poetry to a new group of sixth-graders, as well as exploring different elements of campus life in a foreign country. The instructor exchange was not only enlightening for the two educators, but also for the sixth-grade students to encounter fresh perspectives in their typical English classrooms.
Chadwick sophomore Sustainability Council members Susan Cho and Graham Galusha spent five days in South Korea collaborating with the CI Sustainability Council. On the first day, the two groups headed to Myeong-dong to visit the office of Greenpeace Korea, exploring the South Korean culture after their tour.
“It was great to have the opportunity to explore the sustainability scene in a place so far away,” Cho said. “We wrote up a proposal for a grant last year and Chadwick loved it. It was up to us to choose when to do the exchange.”
Cho and Galusha spent their second day plogging (a global environmental movement of jogging while picking up litter) at Songdo Central Park near Chadwick International.
After giving a sustainability presentation to the fifth-grade Village Schoolers, the collaboration trip successfully came to an end with a picket design for the recent 2023 Global Climate Strike and Green Climate Fund visit.
“We met so many new people while we were in Songdo,” Galusha said. “We would love to go back again to maybe explore a different objective at CI.”
Among the students the duo befriended on their trip was junior Kai Cameron, who arrived the following week in Los Angeles on a CITV exchange, exploring the Wick Media program along with three other Chadwick International students. They were astonished by Chadwick’s spring musical, Fame … and the warm omelets in
the cafeteria!
“It was surprising how different Chadwick School was from our school, though the schools share the same name.” said sophomore Brendon Lee, who participated in
the trip.
The 2022-2023 school year’s cross-campus interaction program will come to an end with the Songdo collaboration trip over spring break. The Songdo trip will be led by Bryan Nelle, a history teacher at Chadwick School and former History Department chair at Chadwick International, who aims to allow students to explore cultural aspects in South Korea as well as work with CI students to develop compelling individual programs.
Nikko Nickerson, a sophomore at Chadwick School, is excited to be part of the Songdo trip.
“I’ve always wanted to see the culture on the opposite side of the world. I think this experience will allow me to develop cultural competence,” he said.
Nickerson is in the process of designing activities to allow students to introduce cuisines from different countries. “I think food is an excellent portrayal of cultures, but a lot of people don’t realize that.”
The Chadwick collaboration team is currently developing more programs to establish bonds between the two campuses. This year’s trip was distinct from past years’ exchanges in allowing students to initiate projects that they are truly passionate about, rather than spending their time studying in unfamiliar classes.
Chadwick’s “one school, two campuses” philosophy exposes students to diverse educational and cultural experiences, which is valuable to have as developing global citizens.
The Chadwick community is beginning to form life-changing connections across two countries, with much more on the horizon.
The Mainsheet 