Groton Welcomes Exchange Students

Groton School had the honor of welcoming four new exchange students to our Circle on September 15.
In recent years, Groton has been privileged to welcome a growing number of exchange students from around the world. The latest group—Abby Aitkens, Anna Baring, Robert Caesar, and Orlando Goffin—come from Bedales School and Cheltenham College, both co-educational boarding schools in the United Kingdom. 
 
The students will stay for a month, taking classes with Groton students and participating in activities ranging from dance to American football. Knowing the initial days could be overwhelming, our Global Education program and its prefects strove to make the transition to our community as fun and comfortable as possible for our new honorary Grotonians. 
 
“I expected it to be a bit overwhelming, and it is," said Anna, "but I am so excited about the fun things about to come!”
 
The visitors truly are “exchange” students because four Groton Fourth Formers currently are visiting the British schools for a month—Noelia Carbajal and Malik Gaye at Bedales School and Layla McDermott and George Zhai at Cheltenham College. These exchanges are made possible by Groton's Global Education program and its director, Nishad Das, who has worked to expand and refine the program.
 
The students visiting Groton inevitably bring a fresh perspective to our small, tight-knit community. But, in a sense, these guests are bringing a bit of Groton's own history back to the Circle as well. Groton's  founder, the Reverend Endicott Peabody, was himself educated at Cheltenham. Motivated by his experience there, he sought to create a similar school in his homeland, the United States. The principles and values he learned to embrace at Cheltenham are still clear at Groton today.
 
We are beyond excited for Anna, Abby, Orlando, and Robert to be a part of our community, but also enthused to become a part of theirs.—Suzy K. '16

(Photo by Ibante Smallwood '16)
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