High School Program to Italy

HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM TO ITALY

Come to Italy with BEC!

Discovering Italian culture, living in an Italian family, attending a local high school: are your students dreaming about this? Do you want to help them with their once in a lifetime adventure?

BEC Italy has been helping students and partners all over the world for more than 30 years making this dream come true!

BEC welcomes students from more than 15 different countries for short term, semester or the whole academic year, starting from September or January. Students must be between the age of 14 and 18 and they are not required to know Italian before departure.

How does BEC work?

Student support

Local coordinator:
We are supported throughout the whole country by Local Coordinators who search for and screen suitable host families and high schools, to match with your students. The Local Coordinators are mainly high school teachers, who are familiar with the high school system and who daily deal with teenage students. Our Coordinators regularly report to the main office and receive constant training. Local coordinators are also the first point of contact for students: they meet them as soon as they arrive and support them throughout the whole experience.

Host families:
The research of host families is extremely accurate. BEC pays attention to some of the most important standards like accommodation, but also makes sure families are extremely motivated and have the right expectations about hosting a student. Host families must be willing to share: the Italian language, their traditions, habits, and daily life. We ask them to involve the student in every activity, to be generous and understanding, especially during the first period of the exchange. Local Coordinators and BEC staff in the office provide support to host families during the whole stay of the student to make sure the experience is positive on both sides.

School

High School:
We place students mainly in public high schools, usually suggested by host families either because they have kids attending that specific school or because of the vicinity to the house. The office takes care of school registration. High schools in Italy differentiate by specialties. We can count 5 main curricula: classic (focusing on Latin and Greek studies), scientific (main subjects are math, physics and sciences), foreign languages, social and economic curricula and art high schools. BEC welcomes expressions of preferences, but we cannot guarantee to place a student in a specific curricula.

Activities

Orientation:
At the beginning of the experience, both for arrival in September and January, BEC organizes a 4-day orientation in Milan. It’s a chance to personally meet all the students on the program! Students spend their first days with other exchange students, to make friends from all over the world and to share expectations and fears. BEC staff will also hold a workshop about the program and its core rules. We will explain how the school system works, providing students with information about Italy and the Italian way of living, introducing to them some of the most peculiar and fun Italian traditions. This is aimed at helping students to transit smoothly into their new life.

Trips and excursions:
Every year BEC organizes some optional excursions and trips for all the Exchange students on the program. These are a chance to meet other students from different nationalities and discover the beauties of Italy. These trips usually take place in December and in spring. We take students to cities such as Florence and Venice: a unique opportunity to visit our country, experience its art and its lively and youthful atmosphere that makes it truly unique. Towards the end of the school year, between May and June, we take students to a 7-day trip to Sardinia. A trip full of local excursions to learn about the ancient nuraghi, folkloristic traditions and, of course, the white beaches of this beautiful island. Last, but not least, throughout the whole year Local Coordinators organize several gatherings and day trips to give the students the opportunity to explore the area they are living in.