Global Learning Program

Starting as young as Junior Pre-Kindergarten, students at Kent Place begin thinking as global citizens. Throughout the Primary, Middle, and Upper Schools, our courses work in tandem to help students build global competence.

Global competence is a critical component of education in the 21st century, as reflected in national initiatives across several disciplines, including literacy, world languages, and STEM. Global competence integrates knowledge of the world and the skill of application with the disposition to think and behave productively. It enables students to be a productive, involved citizen, prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of the world.

Our teachers strive to make interdisciplinary connections when possible, and global learning is no exception. On issues ranging from the environment to politics to culture, our students go beyond global awareness to action. 

Having the ability to communicate in more than one language with clarity, respect and cultural understanding is a critical component of global competence. In order to allow students the opportunity to achieve linguistic and cultural proficiency, Kent Place regularly offers opportunities for Middle and Upper School students to travel abroad to countries where the world language they study is spoken. The additional exposure to the target language in an immersion environment complements the students’ classroom experience. Places our students have been in the recent past are Canada, China, Costa Rica, France, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Iceland, Ireland, and Peru.

Through service-learning, Kent Place provides transformative educational opportunities that prepare our students to be responsible stewards of our environment as well as engaged citizens. In crafting meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships, we deepen our curriculum by providing additional opportunities for students to reflect on self and social awareness, community engagement, social justice, and social responsibility. Kent Place School is committed to making a positive impact on the local and global communities by contributing to the common good. Our ultimate goal is that our students develop an ethic of service and empathy for our shared human experience

In addition to their purpose of teaching students to interact compassionately, ethically and successfully with diverse peoples and cultures to create a more humane, sustainable global society, trip leaders and chaperones serve the educational purpose of enabling students to grow as teammates and 21st-century leaders.

Service-learning is an opportunity to use the world as a living classroom and to explore new cultures with traditions and customs that stand in great contrast to our own. The motto of the Global Service Learning Initiative is “Embrace, Envision, Empower.”

• Embrace the challenge of educating girls and women globally
• Envision a world in which access to education for all is accessible
• Empower Kent Place students to create meaningful change

In the end, our students learn a great deal about other people and places, but also about themselves.