TOWNSHEND — An information session for students interested in participating in the 2014 Journey East Asian Studies Academy and month-long performance tour of China will be held in the music room at Leland & Gray Union High School on Thursday, Jan. 24, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Interested students and their parents are invited and encouraged to attend. A second session, for those unable to attend on the 24th, will be held at the same time and place on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
The Journey East Program, initially funded by the Freeman Foundation and with major support from the University of Vermont's award-winning Asian Studies Outreach Program, was created at Leland & Gray in 2000.
Details of the most recent journey, including photos and student essays, are at www.journeyeast.csrworld.com.
More than 200 students from host Leland & Gray and area schools including Brattleboro, Twin Valley, Burr & Burton, Green Mountain, The Compass School, Bellows Falls and others have participated. More than 40 students from those schools have brought their energy and talents to the high school in previous years, enriching the program and their home schools and becoming valued members of the Journey East community.
Journey East welcomes non-Leland & Gray student participation and has reserved seven slots for students who normally do not attend the Townshend school.
• The day-long, semester-long program, which commences mid-January 2014, is open to qualified students now in grades 8-11.
• The tuition for accepted students from “choice” towns follows the student to Leland & Gray.
• Students may elect to attend Leland & Gray for the second semester only or may enroll for the entire school year.
For the duration of a semester in Journey East, participating students in grades 9-12 are engaged in the study of Chinese history, philosophy, geography, politics, literature and film. Additionally, all students are enrolled in classes in Leland and Gray's AP-certified Chinese language program. All participants are required to take chorus, and many study instrumental music as well.
Students also work with Journey East teachers in a course entitled “production workshop” in which they create and produce a music/theater/dance/movement piece that is presented to many thousands of Chinese students and teachers during a month-long study/performance tour of China in March and April.
After traveling and studying in Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shandong province, the last several days in China are spent collaborating in music, dance and art workshops with students and teachers at The Arts College of Inner Mongolia University in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Working together, these students teach and learn songs and dances from both cultures. Those pieces then become part of a final joint performance program.
Once home, students serve as resources in other Vermont schools where they perform and share their experiences and insights into Chinese culture, visiting classrooms throughout Windham County.
Each student participant makes presentations to students in the elementary school that he/she attended. Additionally, each student chooses a focus area to study in greater depth and delivers a presentation on that subject to their peers, parents, and community members as a final exhibition in June, a capstone project in lieu of a final exam.