Welcome to Journey East!

This is the home of the month-long journeys
taken by the Leland & Gray Asian Studies program participants.

Director: Tom Connor

Visit the past Journeys East:

JE2010 + JE2008 + JE2007 + JE2005 + JE2004 + JE2002
 

THE 2012 JOURNEY EAST BLOG
 

The Journey East Program was created at Leland and Gray in 2000 and over 200 students from host Leland and Gray and area schools including Brattleboro, Twin Valley, Burr and Burton, Green Mountain, The Compass School, Bellow Falls and others have participated. Nearly 40 students from the aforementioned schools have brought their energy and talents to the high school in previous years, enriching the program and their home schools and becoming valued members of the Journey East community. Seven slots have been reserved in the 2012 program for qualified students from out of the Leland and Gray Union District.

For the duration of a semester in Journey East, participating students in grades 9-12 are engaged in the study of Chinese history, philosophy, geography, politics, literature and film. Additionally, all students are enrolled in classes in Leland and Gray’s AP-certified Chinese language program. All participants are required to take Chorus and many study instrumental music, as well.

Students also work with Journey East teachers in a course entitled “Production Workshop,” in which they create and produce a music/theater/dance/movement piece that is presented to many thousands of Chinese students and teachers during a month-long study/performance tour of China in March and April.

After traveling and studying in Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shandong Province, the last several days in China are spent collaborating in music, dance and art workshops with students and teachers at The Arts College of Inner Mongolia University in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Working together, these students teach and learn songs and dances from each other’s culture. Those pieces then become part of a final joint performance program.

Once home, students serve as resources in other Vermont schools where they perform and share their experiences and insights into Chinese culture, visiting classrooms throughout Windham County. Each student participant makes presentations to students in the elementary school that he/she attended. Additionally, each student chooses a focus are to study in greater depth and delivers a presentation on that subject to their peers, parents and community members as a final exhibition in June, a capstone project in lieu of a final exam.

Contact Tom Connor at Leland and Gray for more information. 
(802) 365-7355 or E-mail: tconnor@wcsu46.org

Leland and Gray's Journey East students, faculty and parents would like to express our sadness and extend our condolences to the family of Houghton Freeman, founder of the Freeman Foundation, who passed away the end of November, 2010. The vision and generosity of Mr. Freeman have directly and powerfully impacted the lives of hundreds of students and families in the Leland and Gray community and beyond.

We will be forever grateful for the experiences with, knowledge of and insights into a culture that was so foreign to us a short ten years ago . . .
 

THE 2010 JOURNEY!

Watch the incredible journey of 27 students and six adults as they experience life in China and Inner Mongolia!

Over 175 area students have been immersed in Asia through Journey East, Leland and Gray's Asian Studies Academy and Sino-American Arts Exchange, since its inception in 2000.

Created at Leland and Gray, funded by the Freeman Foundation and supported by UVM’s Asian Studies Outreach Program and the Windham Central Supervisory Union, Journey East consists of a high school-based Asian studies program; arts exchanges with China; the integration of an Asian studies curriculum throughout the Windham Central Supervisory Union, and the introduction of Chinese language into the district.

For the duration of a semester in Journey East, high school participants are engaged in the study of Chinese history, philosophy, geography, politics, literature and film. Additionally, they learn some very basic Chinese language. All students take Chorus and are involved in a “Production Workshop,” in which they work with Journey East teachers to create and produce a music/theater/dance/movement piece that is presented to many thousands of Chinese students and teachers during the month-long study/performance program in China in March and April. Throughout this month-long program in China students learns about the culture first-hand as they share their performance with their peers.

The last several days in China are spent collaborating in music, dance and art workshops with students and teachers at the Arts College of Inner Mongolia University in Hohhot, P.R.C. Working together, these students teach and learn songs and dances from each other’s culture. Those pieces then become part of a final joint performance program.

Once home, students serve as resources in other Vermont schools where they perform and share their experiences and insights into Chinese culture visiting classrooms throughout Vermont. Each student participant also makes presentations to students in the elementary school that he/she attended. In addition, each student chooses a focus area to study in greater depth and delivers a presentation on that subject to their peers, parents and community members as a final exhibition in June, as a capstone project, in lieu of a final exam.

Leland and Gray, The Journey East Program and home schools have been enriched over the past nine years by the inclusion of students from area schools such as Brattleboro, Twin Valley, Bellows Falls, Green Mountain Union H.S., The Compass School and Vermont Academy. 

Contact Tom Connor at Leland and Gray for more information. 
(802) 365-7355 or E-mail: tconnor@wcsu46.org

Mongolian Dancers at L&G High School. Fall 2009 (video)

Visit the past Journeys East:

JE2010 + JE2008 + JE2007 + JE2005 + JE2004 + JE2002

Created at Leland & Gray High School in Townshend, Vermont, supported by the ~Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP) at the University of Vermont (UVM), and funded primarily through a grant from the Freeman Foundation,

Journey East, directed by Tom Connor, consists of the Asian Studies Academy and Sino-American Performing Arts Exchange at Leland and Gray Union High School; the integration of an Asian Studies curriculum throughout the Windham Central Supervisory Union, and the introduction of Chinese language programs into the district.

~Dr. Juefei Wang, Program Director of the Freeman Foundation and Founder and Former Director of the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP) at the University of Vermont, is a recipient of the prestigious Goldman Sachs Award for Excellence in International education, on behalf of the UVM, Asian Studies Outreach Program.

The Leland and Gray Journey East program is deeply indebted, and extends its heartfelt thanks, to Dr. Juefei Wang, without whose effort and support this program would not even be possible!

Director: Tom Connor
Webmaster: John Reinhardt
All rights reserved. Copyright 2008.