It is with great pride and great honor to announce that Brittony Rodgers, Leila Grossman, and Peyton Schultheis, Class of 2017, have been accepted into the IU Honors Program for Foreign Language!

Brittony will be traveling to Oviedo, Spain this summer in a 7-week Spanish immersion program.  Oviedo is a town in Northern Spain known for its beautiful medieval structures.  Oviedo, a city of 210,000 citizens, was founded by two monks in 761. It is surrounded by lush green and hilly landscapes and is capital of the Principality of Asturias. This beautiful city offers many architectural gems, stemming from the Visigothic, Roman and Nordic traditions.  Located just forty minutes south of the picturesque beaches of the Cantabrian Sea, it is within easy reach of the Cantabrian Mountains and the impressive national park of Los Picos de Europa.

Leila will be traveling to León, Spain this summer in a 7-week Spanish immersion program.  Located in northwestern Spain in the province of Castilla-León, just south of the Cantabrian Mountains, León’s population has nearly 137,000 inhabitants. Started as a Roman military encampment in 29 B.C. and once the capital of one of the oldest Christian kingdoms, Léon is one of the oldest sites of the program. Much of its historical architecture, such as the spectacular Gothic cathedral of Pulchra Leonina, dates back to the middle Ages. Léon follows many customs and processions, including the San Juan and San Pedro festivals with fireworks and bonfires during the last week of June.

Peyton will be traveling to St. Brieuc, France this summer in a 7-week French immersion program. 

Named after a Welsh monk in the sixth century and one of the oldest towns in the program, St. Brieuc is located in the region of Brittany in northwestern France.

As the first program site in France, St. Brieuc has been with the IUHPFL program for 52 years. While St. Brieuc is a smaller town with less than 50,000 citizens, it offers all the amenities of much larger cities. Its scenery is breathtaking with ever-changing water views, sandy beaches and amazing rock formations.

St. Brieuc straddles two rivers before emptying into the Bay of St. Brieuc and the English Channel. In 2008 and 2012, the Tour de France raced through this city.

Upper School French teacher Allison Rashid says, “Students enrolled in foreign language classes are never, really, fully immersed until they get a chance to be in a country where they are obligated to speak the language all the time, in any kind of situation, and get to experience the culture first-hand. Therefore, I believe that the participants in the IU Honors Program will find this opportunity life-changing. They may find it challenging and possibly even frightening at first, but the experience will be, without question, highly rewarding. I am excited to see them progress to this point in their foreign language studies and am proud of all they have accomplished!”

According to Upper School Spanish teacher Linda Huber, this is just one example of how Evansville Day School prepares our students for the stages of life beyond the classroom. With a focus on the key components that comprise Evansville Day School’s Portrait of a Graduate, this experience will enhance their personal development in the following ways:

1. Intrepreneurial Learner - having a passion for learning beyond the classroom and taking ownership for their own educational journey
2. Globally Minded - Becoming adaptable citizens with the confidence to take initiative and seeking to understand values and traditions that are different than their own
3. Resilient - Focusing on goals through dedication and hard work and demonstrating confidence to make difficult personal decisions on their own
4. Balanced - Embracing diverse experiences and continuously reflecting on them, as well as identifying and pursuing their strengths and talents, while also recognizing and confronting challenges

Congratulations to all three young ladies on this wonderful accomplishment.

More information about the program can be found here.