Chesterfield/St. Albans, MO - Nine Chinese middle-school students are learning about the St. Louis area firsthand by participating in a two-week summer camp program at Chesterfield Day School (CDS)-St. Albans. The camp runs July 17-30.
The children, from all over China, are staying with Chesterfield Day School families. Children of those host families were invited to attend the camp with their Chinese guests.
During the day the students spend time hiking and studying nature around the St. Albans campus, performing science projects (including the building and shooting off of rockets!) and attending English classes. They also are visiting St. Louis attractions, including the St. Louis Zoo, art museums, the Science Center, Meramec Caverns, Jefferson Memorial and the University of Missouri, St. Louis. On their second day of camp Dierberg𠏋 supermarket in Wildwood gave them to a behind-the-scenes tour and treated them to ice cream and cake.
The parents of the Chinese students all have a connection - they are alumni of Tsinghua University in Beijing, attending there in the 1980s. They decided to send their children to summer camp at Chesterfield Day School after talking about the school with CDS teacher and International Program Coordinator Xiaoyan (Cheryl) Xing. Xing regularly visits relatives and friends in China and actively recruits foreign students from there and other foreign countries for CDS𠏋 summer camps and for the regular school year (F-1 students from elementary up to high school). CDS also has a teacher training program (F-1 visa for adults) for people who have finished an undergraduate degree.
The Chinese students arrived July 16. Their first American meal was that day at Joe's Crab Shack in Chesterfield Valley.
CDS has put on summer camps for international students three times in the past; Korean students attended those camps. This is the first camp for Chinese students. Xing is the contact person; she can be reached on email at cxing@chesterfielddayschool.org.
Chesterfield Day School is an independent, not-for-profit coeducational school serving toddlers-6th graders at its Chesterfield campus at 1100 White Road and preschoolers-12th graders at its campus in St. Albans, MO. For more information, visit Chesterfield Day School on the Web at www.chesterfielddayschool.org. |
