Global Classroom Awards
Palmer Trinity School
7900 SW 176th Street
Miami, FL 33157
Principal: Sean Murphy
Contact Person and Essay Author: Danny Reynolds, Director of Admission and College Counseling
"For the past 20 years Palmer Trinity School has welcomed exchange students from across the globe. We have hosted over 100 high school exchange students from Iceland, Germany, Serbia, Australia, France, and Spain. With a high school of less than 400 students, this has enriched our already diverse student population.
Almost a decade ago, we sought out sister schools from countries in the languages that we teach at Palmer Trinity. In 2004 we partnered with two schools in Sydney, Australia. The plan was that students from Abbotsleigh School and Trinity Grammar would spend our fall semester at Palmer Trinity and in January our students would spend the second semester in Sydney. This program would not only build a connection with our schools, but a year long relationship with our families. Almost 40 students have participated in the program on both sides of the world. This has not only become a student exchange, but an exchange of ideas and friendship for our schools’ faculty and administration.
In 2008, we added the Colegio Marista Champagnat in Salamanca, Spain to our exchange network. The process works similar to the exchange in Australia with students going to Salamanca from Palmer Trinity in the fall and Champagnat students coming to us for our spring semester. The school in Spain is a traditional Spanish school and students must be fluent in the language to attend. Over 25 students have participated. In 2010, we added Lycee Georges Duby in Aix en Provence, France. For the past two years we have sent four students to this school and have welcomed four French students for the semester in this competitive program. Students must be partially fluent in French in order to enroll. In addition to the semester programs in Salamanca and Aix, we also swap up to 15 students each year for a short term three week summer language immersion program from each of these sister schools in Europe. These students live with host families.
Along with our academic exchanges, we have several service learning and cultural opportunities abroad. For the past decade during our spring and winter breaks we have sent a several dozen students to Nicaragua to build homes. There are also opportunities for service in Costa Rica and Honduras. In March, 85 students in our school orchestra performed in three cities in China. For the past several years we have a weeklong cultural exchange with Omiya High school in Saitama City, Japan. This fall we welcomed 40 students from the school and our students will go to Japan next year to reciprocate. In this past year alone there have been eleven different opportunities for students to study abroad on a Palmer Trinity exchange lasting from a semester to a week. We are also in the process of partnering with a school in China to exchange students since we have been teaching Mandarin for the past five years.
Palmer Trinity is a unique school where global education is a vital part of the mission of our school. Our students come from 35 different foreign countries and almost half of our students are bilingual with 20% speaking more than two languages. Our school program not only includes student exchanges, but partnerships with schools and organizations abroad to give our students a world view. Financial assistance is available so all of our students have an opportunity to participate. Throughout our curriculum, we focus on the countries where we have partnerships. Our summer reading list introduces students to authors from Australia, Spain, France, and Central America. As a founding member of the Global Education Benchmark Group which includes 19 other schools who value global opportunities for our students, we hope to share our successes with other schools across the country."