ISSE Conference 2023
Excitement filled the air as ISSE delegates from many countries traveled to Cancún, Mexico in
International School-to-School Experience (ISSE) was founded in 1971 by Dr. Doris T. Allen who had started the Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV) twenty years earlier. Both programs have the goal of contributing to international understanding and world peace by offering children opportunities to meet and make friendships with young people from other nations.
ISSE´s objective is to allow upper elementary school students to interact with and learn from other children from around the world, thereby fostering peace and understanding on a global basis.
Opportunities to participate in international travel allows children to get to know different cultures and live with realities different from their own. It sparks interests in global travel and learning new languages, and it fosters understanding of the similarities and differences between people from different parts of the world.
Students who participate in the ISSE program become more decisive and develop independence. They learn to adapt to new situations, try new foods, and interact with people they have never met before. They become more resourceful, and their ability to resolve situations on their own improves. Through their experiences giving classroom presentations and whole school cultural performances, they become more comfortable with public speaking and often become leaders in their schools after their ISSE experience ends.
The roots of the ISSE program extended back to 1951 when Dr. Doris T. Allen founded the Children´s International Summer Villages (CISV). ISSE, an extension and companion organization of CISV, has grown since 1971 to include a large number of participating countries which currently includes:
These are some of the benefits that and ISSE experience can provide you:
Name of the school
Country and city where the school is located
Is the school Private or public?
What grade levels / number of students are a part of the school?
Name and email address for contact persons (2 or 3)
Why does your school wish to join ISSE?
What can your school offer to the program?
If an in-person visit from ISSE Administration to your school is not possible, providing details about your school environment as well as a virtual tour video and testimonials will assist in the decision making process.
The application process is easier if someone associated with the ISSE program recommends your school for ISSE.
If the school is accepted, ISSE Administration will work to match it with another school for an exchange as soon as possible or for the next school year.
Children of all backgrounds are welcome to participate in the ISSE program.
A partnership is formed between an elementary school in one country and an elementary school in another country . A delegation of 6-8 eleven or twelve year old children and 1-2 adult chaperones from one country visits a school for the first half of an exchange in another country for approximately three weeks. Each child lives with a host family with a child of similar age. The delegation attends classes with their hosts and gives classroom and cultural presentations during their time at school. The host families and host school arrange field trips for the delegation to learn more about the city and country which they are visiting.
Later, the school which hosted the delegation for the first half of the exchange will send their delegates to the other school for the second half of the exchange experience.
Email: marketing@isseonline.org
School
In the year 2019, I had the opportunity to travel to Melbourne Australia with a group of students from VKS Victoria´s School to Mount View School. We were a delegation of 12.
The preparation for this great experience was incredible. Our students made an incredible bond with us as chaperones. We worked for months with them and with their families. From teaching them how to make a well packed suitcase to learning folklore dances from our region to present.
Family
The ISSE program is an adventurous project and a certain amount of trust is necessary for the parents involved- the bridge of communicatios helped us feel we were sending our child off to “Friends” rather than the unkwown.
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