In  April, the Roycemore School Community welcomed 30 students and 3 teachers from Nîmes, France in an exciting new international exchange! For eight days, our guests stayed with host families from all divisions of the school community, joining in their hosts’ routines and activities and getting to experience American culture firsthand while practicing their English communication skills. 

At 14 and 15 years old, the students were curious to sample the Roycemore Upper School curriculum, and they were warmly welcomed into Upper School classrooms for a morning of Pottery, Economics and Data Analysis, Advanced French, World Studies, and Novels & Nonfiction. 

Outside of their time at Roycemore, French students and teachers were busy exploring the sites of Chicago: the Willis Tower, the DuSable Museum, the Wabash Art Corridor, the Field Museum, and an afternoon of shopping on the Magnificent Mile, among other activities. French guests and host families then gathered all together on the evening of Thursday, April 20th to take in the Cubs v. Dodgers! It was a fantastic evening and French students were proudly wearing Cubs jerseys in support of their new home team. Frontyard bonfires, lakefront bike rides, zoo and museum visits, ice skating, local walks, visits to the Northwestern campus, and a trampoline park were also enjoyed by visitors and hosts alike during the week. 

This exchange is a new initiative for Roycemore, and we are proud to be partnering with families locally and internationally to foster meaningful and enriching educational experiences for all parties. 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderfully successful exchange, especially our warm and generous host families! This experience would not have been possible without our amazing French teachers, Madame Adeline Courtial and Madame Brynn Leavitt. We are so appreciative of their hard work to make it happen.