Global Service Program Details 2010

	Global Service Program China		Global Service Program Cuba

Program Dates:

June 21 to 23	Faculty and Student Institute workshops and trip preparation at George School.
June 24	Depart for Shanghai, China or Holguin, Cuba.
July 10	Cuba trip departs Holguin for USA.
July 16	China trip departs Beijing for USA.

Note: the travel dates are subject to change depending on available flights, visa and travel license restrictions.

Fees:
Cuba: $3,000
China: $3,500

The fees include all costs upon arrival and return to George School. You will be responsible for getting to George School by the start of the workshops on June 21 and back home upon our return to the United States. We will assist you in making alternative travel plans home if it is cheaper to fly directly to your hometown instead of the airports near George School.

Other costs include any spending money you may wish to bring to purchase snacks or gifts while overseas. Typically, $200-$300 is more than adequate.

Financial Aid
There is limited financial aid available for both faculty and students through the E.E. Ford Grant. However, because aid is limited, before deciding how much aid you plan on requesting, please carefully consider all the resources available that might help fund your trip. Faculty might be eligible for faculty enrichment funds or chair money. Students could consider a part-time job, birthday or holiday money, or special funds available from their school. You might also want to consider holding a fundraiser.

To demonstrate personal commitment to the program, we expect faculty to contribute a minimum of $500 of their own funds toward the cost of the trip. Students are expected to contribute at least 10 percent of the total cost of their trip ($300 for Cuba and $350 for China).

For students to be considered for aid, they must already be receiving financial aid from their school.

You can request financial aid by filling out the appropriate sections of the application form.

How to apply:  All application materials are due by January 15, 2010. Please email Pauline McKean at pauline_mckean@georgeschool.org if you need an application extension.

Who can apply?

-	Faculty and staff from independent schools are welcome to apply.
-	Students must be current high school sophomores or juniors to apply.
-	Space is limited; we can take a total of twenty participants to China and sixteen to Cuba.
-	Because we want to have a ratio of one adult to two students, we encourage applicants from the same school to apply in groups of this ratio, more or less. There is a place on the application forms to list the other members of your application group. If you are applying as a group, please send in all your applications together.
-	More than one group per school is welcome to apply.
-	All the members of a single group application must be applying for the same trip/country.
-	Individual students and teachers are welcome to apply, but preference will be given to those applying as groups. Individuals are likely to be accepted to help balance the desired ratio.
-	For the China trip, we especially encourage speakers or students of Mandarin Chinese to apply, but this is not a requirement.
-	Students applying for the Cuba trip must presently be enrolled in a Spanish 3 (or higher) class or have the minimum of a third-year proficiency in Spanish.

Teachers, to help you decide which students would be competitive applicants for the program (especially if your school is submitting a group application), we have provided some guidelines in choosing international service trip participants. These are not requirements, but simply some things you might want to consider; in the sixty plus years of running international service trips, we have found this to be quite helpful.