Green Mountain College, VT
Oberlin College, OH
Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish
Here's why you can have confidence in the MMLA immersion program:
We build on the 95-year experience of
We provide a year’s worth of classroom instruction in a single month. And because our students truly live the language they’re learning, many Academy students are able to make very dramatic leaps in skill level and proficiency.
We combine small-class instruction, creative group projects, and the Language Pledge with individual attention and support. At all skill levels, our students integrate their classroom studies with real-life use of the language—all day every day, all month long. Every moment becomes a teachable moment, every relationship a learning relationship.
We give middle and high school students a taste of living and learning on a real college campus. We create a community that is devoted to language learning.
We provide cocurricular activities and cultural experiences that reinforce language learning, set it in context, and help bring it to life. And we make the learning fun! It’s a challenge, to be sure—and it’s a challenge that we all rise to together.
2010 Parent Comments:
We received many comments, letters, and phone calls after our 2010 session. Some of these following comments from parents capture the type of positive feedback shared by parents:
-My daughter had a wonderful and enriching experience at MMLA. She was able to skip an entire grade in Spanish and move to the Honors program. She tells me it has been very easy because she was so well prepared at MMLA , and that she is actually ahead of her class of students who have taken Spanish longer than she has. This was a spectacular experience for my daughter. She was challenged and supported -- and the language pledge, believe it or not, made the whole experience one big adventure for her. She also felt the faculty and students bonded well because of the pledge -- their own little community!
-My son loved his experience. His comfort speaking French was vastly improved and he (and we) couldn't have been happier with his experience. Merci mille fois!
-This was her first 'away from home' experience. She came home more confident, self motivated and independent all in a good way. I think the support you give the students is excellent and I truly hope she decides to attend next summer as well. Thank you all for a wonderful experience and for your hard work and dedication with my daughter.
-Our son's experienced was everything we hoped for and even more. Not only did he develop enough fluency in Spanish to converse with me and our family in Argentina, but he felt happy, engaged, surrounded by nice people and had a wonderful time. I was highly impressed by the high quality of teachers, residence advisors and special activities counselors and by the high spirits they all shared with the campers. our son said: "it was like we made our own family there".
-I disagree about the brochure because my child gained so much MORE from the experience! No written document/brochure could accurately represent the magic that goes on at MMLA. Being a language teacher at a high school, I simply cannot believe what an amazing program this is.
-MMLA '09 was a wonderful, life-changing experience for our daughter. One of the best things we have done in a long time. We feel lucky to have found your program and been able to participate. THANK YOU!!!!!
-Studying Arabic MMLA provided my son a great deal of valuable education in a relatively short time. Instructors were first rate and caring individuals. My son intends to study abroad in college if given the opportunity.
-The program was extremely challenging, especially given my child had no prior Spanish experience, but the challenge was great...I think it gave her an enormous amount of confidence to know she could be away from home for four weeks, work really hard to communicate and learn, and survive and thrive. The entire experience was fabulous for her. She talked about the program non-stop the entire four hours it took us to get home.
-As a total beginner of Spanish, Alexis was intimidated at the enrollment. Week one was hard. Week two a bit easier. Week three the same. She was sad at the end of week four. Now she cannot wait to sign up for 2010. Her improvements are an indication that the MMLA is a great program.
-As you can see from my overall comments the experience at MMLA was both challenging and rewarding for my son, but as a parent I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. This is definitely something that all parents should want their children to experience because it opens their minds to endless opportunities.
-As a total beginner of Spanish, Alexis was intimidated at the enrollment. Week one was hard. Week two a bit easier. Week three the same. She was sad at the end of week four. Now she cannot wait to sign up for 2010. Her improvements are an indication that the MMLA is a great program.
-My son loved his time with you and he is so proud of what he accomplished there. I think it will change his life.
Some special topics for parents:
Contact between student and family. We encourage letter-writing—the old-fashioned way! To maintain our immersion environment, students will have only limited access to telephones, and we ask that they leave their cell phones at home. Parents are always welcome to call us with any questions or concerns. We will return phone calls within 24 hours—unless it’s an emergency, in which case we will respond as quickly as possible.
Homesickness. Especially at first, the challenging environment of immersion study can make students long for home. We are aware of this and sensitive to it. All of our faculty are experienced in teaching middle and high school students. Our students live in dorms with resident counselors, who are college-age students and who pay close attention to how each student in their group is doing. All staff members are available for individual attention and support; be assured that we respond quickly to any sign of concern.
Most important, we develop a very supportive sense of community. We’re all in this together! And as our month together progresses, we find that students tend to bond strongly with each other. Many create joyful, supportive friendships that last well beyond their time at MMLA.
Special learning requirements. Students often come to MMLA with hopes that we will tutor them in specific areas to prepare them for tests or for specific programs and requirements at their regular schools. We’re not able to customize our program to meet these particular needs. Instead, we provide a comprehensive language-learning program, devoted to full-spectrum learning. We do pay close attention to individual students’ needs and challenges in fulfilling this program, and we provide support and individualized help where those needs arise.