The Ivy Key has partnered with China Your Way, a premier study abroad service for high school students, to offer unique spring and summer study experiences in China. CYW offers a courtesy discount on all its services to students enrolled in any of The Ivy Key’s programs.
China Your Way provides four-week summer language immersion sessions for high school students interested in learning Mandarin. The session utilizes China Your Way’s Three-Component Method™ of language learning:
Homestays – Every student lives with a registered homestay family in Beijing. Most families have one or more children around high school age. The families provide an ideal resource for students to practice Mandarin and to learn about everyday culture in China. China Your Way’s executive staff screens each family prior to assigning a student.
Mandarin classes – Each weekday morning from 9-12, students come to China Your Way’s Mandarin Learning Center for Mandarin class. CYW holds classes for all ability levels, covering speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The teachers are native Chinese speakers with Master’s degrees in teaching Mandarin as a second language. Because CYW believes in the merits of small classroom settings, our student to teacher ratio never exceeds 10 to 1.
Cultural activities – Each afternoon, students participate in cultural programs that reflect their own personal interests. China Your Way maintains the philosophy that students learn best when having fun. For this reason, students can customize their own activity program from among the following choices: volunteerism, cooking, dance, visual art, athletics, and traditional Chinese culture. The programs provide an opportunity to learn vocabulary relevant to the student’s interests, while simultaneously providing an entertaining environment for crystallizing language acquisition.
China Your Way places special emphasis on the volunteer activity program. Virtually all of our students choose to participate in volunteerism, among their other preferred activities. CYW’s aim is not only to help students learn Mandarin, but also to foster international competency, global citizenship, volunteerism, and cultural awareness. Of course, these qualities can make students shine among their peers, particularly when applying to college.
In addition to the summer program, China Your Way offers a 10-day tour – entirely in English – of three major Chinese cities: Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai.
