<p>Another one here for NSLIY!! NSLIY is a State Department-sponsored scholarship (full-ride) for language and cultural immersion in Russian, Chinese, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, and Korean. It’s a pretty prestigious program (15%~ acceptance rate) that colleges look very kindly upon. It’s also some very good practice for college apps, as the NSLIY app requires essays and short answers. There are to program lengths, summer for six weeks or a year for nine months. It’s an amazing program, so just applying to give it a shot couldn’t hurt. :)</p>
Hii, I know this is an old thread, but since there were so many parents/students with Concordia personal experiences I thought I would give it a shot. I really want to send my daughter (12) to concordia for spanish langage camp. The reviews online seem excellent, however when I dove a little deeper I found two separeate instances of rape/sexual assaul by counselors on students, now these were back in 2010 and 2011, but it really gave me pause. We live in the south east, so Concordia is not exactly easily accessable if there were an issue. Just looking for someone parents/students to comment on the safety aspect for me … or alternatively recomend another immersion program. She is 12 so not old enough for Middleburry I dont think.
@elmarsh – I was curious, so tried to find the instances of sexual assault. I found an article in the Minneapolis Tribune describing an assault on students by an employee of the French Academy of Minnesota that occurred on a field trip to the Concordia Language Villages. That was in 2010. Is that what you are referring to? I couldn’t find anything referring to anything happening in 2011, but admittedly, haven’t spent a lot of time searching.
I have had three kids go to the Concordia language camps over the years. My oldest daughter really loved the German camp. The middle daughter also attended the German camp, and had a good experience. She didn’t get into it as much as her older sister, but had fun. She went with a friend who got extremely homesick, and therefore didn’t have a great time. My youngest attended the Japanese camp, and really didn’t enjoy it, though I’m not sure why. Youngest was the only one who had been abroad before attending camp, so maybe that had something to do with it? Don’t really know why. The summer camps felt extremely safe to me, safer than most summer camps/programs for teens, actually. That was not something I worried about.
@elmarsh
If you dig deep enough, you will find instances of sexual assault EVERYWHERE. Including at your kid’s current school. That’s not a realistic way to gauge safety.
The Villages host other groups (school groups, adult groups) during the school year. I’d be surprised if that happened in a summer camp session with regular staff, seems like it would have been big news in MN where we live. The worst my kids ever had happen in a total of 10 summers between them were poison ivy and a bee sting. I think it is a very safe environment.
Yes, I see that now that it took place at Concordia but was a staff member from another french institute.
The other instance that that popped up was from 2006 when concordia language villages operated a camp in savannah, GA.
http://savannahnow.com/stories/082305/3241623.shtml#.Vl86DnarSM8
Yes, I know that this type of thing can be found anywhere, I was just looking for some reassurance from parents/participants as to the safety becuase I wasn’t specifically searching on the topic of safety just generally reading up on Concordia as I was filling out the application and those two popped up fairly close to the top, so my knee jerk reaction was kind of “if these two things showed and I wasn’t even digging for that … then what else might be out there if I did dig into that subject matter”
I’m really not a worry wort, I just thought I would make sure and get some reinforcement opinions that Concordia was a safe place.
Interesting – the incident in Georgia may have been fabricated, from what I read? Who knows. At any rate, I have personally visited the camps in Minnesota, and felt that the Minnesota camps were well supervised and very safe. That was a few years ago, however.
Another big thumbs up for Concordia. My older son went for one year (4-week HS credit program) in French; his need was more remedial, but once he caught on he became an enthusiastic learner and improved tremendously. Younger son has attended the 4-week HS credit program in German for 3 straight years. He did well in the AP German exam and is top of his class in German 5. He is incredibly enthusiastic about the program and all he’s learned. It was definitely a reflection of his personal commitment - electing numerous days to speak no language but German. The 4-week credit programs seem to be the way to go, and it still requires “buy-in” and conscious effort from the student. Can’t say enough good about the place.
A vote for Concordia. Daughter went last year after AP French, Lac Du Bois Bemidji. She said first week she felt like she was lost in Paris. By second week, she could understand everyone as well as different dialects. She’s continued to progress and regularly attends a French club at the local coffee shop as well as converses with native speakers on my campus. I visited for International Day, in her cohort there were many, many kids who were serious students of both the language and the culture. Staff was excellent. Food incredible. If staying stateside, seriously consider.
Wow on that allegation regarding the Georgia camp. It no longer operates, but was staffed by highly qualified people from the Bemidji CLV camps. Reading the report, the camper admitted lying about the assault.
Again, many high school language programs from the upper Midwest have an immersion week or weekend at the camps, so there are other folks there during the academic year, which is that second allegation.
Credit villagers-the four weekers really work at the camps, and put in their time, though content is different at the different camps. The best part of language camp is the joy in language learning and exploring culture inspired by the place. High school Spanish in our area can be a rather dismal affair. Older S hated Spanish in HS, but came to work at the Spanish camp one summer in HS, and fell in love the language, going on to minor in it in college.
In order to afford tuition for Ds. I worked there a few weeks each summer for many years. They were language fanatics, and loved the place. One D is now a language teacher, and I think owes her career to CLV. I still love being there, and look forward to returning myself.
Safety and supervision is given high priority, and I can’t imagine campers having much of a chance to go off by themselves and get in trouble.
Two thumbs up for Concordia (I’d give it three if I had them). S has been going there for 10 years. Went from being a two week camper to a counselor. The campers are well supervised, the actives are varied and encourage a wide variety of interests.
Over the course of the years S has had the opportunity to participate in a mock UN mediated by the under secretary to the UN general counsel. He’s had dinner with delegates from the DC German embassy to discuss integration of the language into US STEM programs. He’s has numerous professors from ‘name brand’ East Coast schools in his contact list who respond to questions and will write letters of recommendation. And he was able to help develop on of the newest programs offered by his village.
All this while having a blast.
I went to Concordia for three separate sessions, once in middle school for two weeks at the french camp, and then twice to the four-week high school credit program at the spanish camp. They were all fantastic experiences, and I would highly recommend them.
I’ll be the lone dissenting voice. My dd did not get much from Concordia. Almost all the kids spent their time speaking English. She tried hard to speak only in French, but that was most successful when speaking with the counselors. She got a lot more out of BYU’s French camp. She and her roommate tried to speak in French all day long in addition to the classroom portion…
BYU is more school-like (and I think it offers high school credit) whereas at Concordia she just went for 2 weeks and it was more like camp. BYU is cheaper.
Another voice in favor of Concordia; my daughter went there as a young camper. Yes, it’s true that the younger kids do not learn as much as they should and speak too much English. But they have a month-long, intensive high school credit program that I believe to be far more serious. Certainly I can’t think of any reason why having one hour of a foreign language a day for eight months would be better than eight hours a day plus partial immersion for one month.
Financial aid is available, but the deadline is near.
As with any educational program, there are mixed results. Some years your kid gets an amazing teacher, has an incredible class that gels. Other years, results are not as wonderful. As at camp, there are great counselors, great heads of program, and the other kids in the cabin are dedicated to speaking the language. Other years, less optimal.
My girls went to perhaps 10 years of sessions of Japanese and then French camp. They remember no Japanese from the early years, but had fun. French was an incredible experience most of the time and their French was very good as a result.
When my son did a college year abroad he did a program which had a language pledge. The very first weekend several of the participants said it was too hard to get to know each other speaking only Arabic. My son and the kids he made friends with kept the pledge. Guess who learned more Arabic? He was really annoyed with them for sabatoging the program. They made a big deal about how important it was to learn to think in Arabic which would not happen if you didn’t do it 24/7. Any way good luck on your decision!
I would check into any exchange programs that operate in the summer. Less costly, total immersion?
Two thumbs up vote for concordia French camp. We had a wonderful experience with it and the children came home singing and speaking French. They learned enough to then travel to Paris a few days later for a vacation and felt at ease in basic French such as asking directions or ordering. I highly recommend it.
Middlebury. Without question one of the very top programs. My daughter attended their Chinese language program (with one year of college Chinese under her belt) and is now in the 400 level at college.
Send her abroad! I’ve experienced both Concordia and summer programs in Central America. I learned so much more living with a host family and 5 hrs a day of one on one or small group sessions that I did at Concordia. Concordia is fun but is is essentially summer camp. I cannot emphasize enough the value of learning to navigate a new culture and live with a family (who are often low income in comparison to U.S. standards). My little sister went to Concordia this summer and came back knowing some songs, a little more spanish and had with new friends. In Guatemala I learned how to navigate “Chicken buses”, flew by myself, went salsa dancing with some local boys, volunteered at a school, fell in love with my adorable little host siblings, got travelers diarrhea, woke up to roosters crowing at 5am, hiked volcanoes, ate everything my host mom cooked and walked all over the city with my wonderful Spanish teacher. I understand that Concordia and Middlebury are probably better choices for young learners. However, while sending your older child abroad can be scary, what they will gain from it is immeasurable.