International Travel and Cultural Exchange

The Academy offers a wide range of international trips every year. These trips build upon the diversity of cultures experienced by students every day at school here; our resident students represent nearly 30 countries. Whether students want to travel to France or Argentina to improve their French or Spanish skills, learn to make intaglio prints in Italy, head to Southeast Asia, India, or Ghana to take part in service trips, or hike in New Zealand or Hawaii, we have a trip for them! Trips take place during winter or spring breaks, or even over the summer. These trips have become a tradition at the Academy and students who participate in them often find them to be life-changing experiences.

Colwell Center for Global Understanding

The Colwell Center for Global Understanding at the Academy fosters global education. The Colwell Center coordinates diversity programs, cultural events, international exchange programs, and many student trips abroad each year. The Center also sponsors a speaker series featuring academics, diplomats, and other leaders, some of whom come to us from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Additionally, it sponsors the Colwell Scholars program in which students meet to discuss world affairs, often in small groups with speakers from the Harvard Weatherhead Center.

The Colwell Center was launched in 2003 through a gift from the Steven B. Colwell family of Carlsbad, California, with the goal of creating a forum for sharing ideas and exploring cultural differences and similarities, leading to better global understanding. Members of the donor family include Steven Colwell II, who graduated from the Academy in 1987; Tyler Colwell of the Class of 1991; and Christopher Colwell, a 2003 graduate.

The Colwell Center also coordinates a number of international and domestic trips focusing on service learning, outdoor adventure, art, and language.

Colwell Center Speaker Series

The Colwell Center partners with the Fellows Program at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs on the Colwell Speaker Series. Speakers are hosted by members of the Academy’s Colwell Scholars program, designed to encourage students’ interest in international issues and cultures, and provide them the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the world.