Interested in immersion-type programs to build french skills. Foreign exchange program preferred (MMLA would be fall back). Curious if any boarding families have first hand experience…posting here instead of Summer Programs section because I think this section gets more traffic.
I can’t speak first-hand, but School Year Abroad (SYA) has a summer program
http://www.sya.org/s/833/index.aspx?sid=833&gid=1&pgid=630
DS’ roomate did SYA in France for a full year and liked it. He lived with a host family - and was not supposed to speak English even when speaking with American friends over Skype, etc. Problem for DS who doesn’t speak French :).
My son did the SYA summer program in China, and I can’t say enough good things about it. Extremely well run program, both in terms of the content of the programming in the foreign country and in communicating with parents before and during the program. He had an absolutely fabulous time on the program, and was able to skip a whole year of Chinese when he got back to school (went from second year Mandarin, to fourth). Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
SYA is supposed to be great. DD did a summer program through Choate which was excellent. I’m not sure if they take non-Choate students for the French program (she took Arabic, so maybe it was less in-demand), but it was very well-run.