Santa Barbara
USA English Residential Immersion: California
Program Overview
Town:
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Dates:
July 15 - Aug 5, 2008
Focus:
English Language and Cultural Immersion
Housing:
Residence, Hotels
Ages:
14-18
Travel Extension:
San Francisco
Key Excursions:
Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Cruz
Santa Barbara is a picturesque, beachfront city in Southern California. Its sunny climate, relaxed lifestyle and stunning landscape make it the perfect setting for both learning and leisure. This truly Californian locale with its Spanish-style architecture is always bustling downtown. Students can stroll along the famous State Street lined with cafés and great shopping all the way down to the beach where the city meets the sea.
Home to the University of California, Santa Barbara, located right along the ocean, the city provides an excellent atmosphere for interacting with American students. Students will explore this historic town with its palm tree-lined promenades, enjoy spectacular walks along the Pacific Coast and experience the legendary glamour of nearby Los Angeles, just an hour and a half away.
Overview
Our residential immersion program in Santa Barbara is designed for students aged 14-18 who are interested in English language and cultural immersion, and have at least one year of English. The program is both a pre-college experience where our students live with peers in a university town, and a language immersion experience facilitated by the Abbey Road students and faculty.
Academics
The Abbey Road Experiential Learning Method (AR-ELM®) is designed to offer students an immersion experience that would be difficult to reproduce in a classroom in their home country. Our classes are conversational and we strive to make the best use of the resources specific to the host community and its surrounding areas. The English language classes are taught in the target language by Abbey Road faculty. Instructors prepare and lead exercises that use the city as an active classroom. Students spend at least half of the class period in the host community.
In addition to the formal classes, students will participate in a full schedule of daily activities, cultural events, travel excursions and academic workshops that expose them to the language, life and culture of the region.
Housing
The language courses are complemented by the residential immersion experience. Abbey Road students and staff live together in a centrally located program residence. Students will live with their peers, sharing daily responsibilities in preparation for a successful college experience. Typically, students will share double or triple rooms with other students of the same gender.
The residential immersion program in Santa Barbara encourages and facilitates the use of English through daily interaction, formal and informal courses, activities, excursions, and much more. All of the Abbey Road faculty and staff who live with the students are fluent in the local language and many are native speakers. They encourage our students to speak English at all times, as the key to success in an immersion program is the student's own motivation and effort.
Daily Schedule
During the week, a typical day will start with English class. After lunch, all students and staff assemble for the daily group meeting. In the afternoons and evenings, students choose from a variety of social, recreational, and artistic activities: beach days, soccer, tennis or other athletics, excursions to local sites and museums, concerts and performances, shopping, art workshops, conversation at outdoor cafés, and more.
In addition to planned activities with the Abbey Road group, students will have free time to pursue personal interests. We strive to maintain a perfect balance between structured activities and free time. While we give our students this privilege, we expect them to adhere to the program rules and safety guidelines, especially the policies on alcohol and curfew, and to uphold our standards of responsibility, maturity, and respect.
Excursions
Students go on day-trips to some of the most beautiful sites of Southern California including Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Travel Extension
The group will stay in San Francisco for three nights, in a three-star hotel located walking distance from key sites and monuments. The itinerary will include visits to the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz jail, Fisherman’s Wharf, Stanford University, and other important sites in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The group will also stop at the famous beach boardwalk and surfer town of Santa Cruz while on the travel extension.
Program Fee & What's Included
Our program fee is all-inclusive: it includes airfare from Paris to the U.S., all travel extensions, trips and excursions, tuition, lodging and insurance, and much more. There are no hidden fees, extra costs or surprises. We encourage you to compare our program fee to other programs and see what they include.
The program fee for the Santa Barbara program is:
Program Fee
Airfare
Santa Barbara:
2.350 €
795 €
The fee covers everything except personal expenses, such as shopping, eating out by choice, taking taxis, or certain optional activities going beyond the planned program. Specifically, the fee includes:
Round-trip group airfare from Paris to the U.S.
All regional travel costs: air, bus and train
Tuition, graduation certificate, and academic credit (varies by program)
Workshops and individual tutoring
Room and board (student residence; all meals included)
All pre-planned group excursions and activities, including tickets, passes, meals and transport
All regional day trips and travel extension (including lodging, meals, group activities and transport)
Travel, accident, and medical insurance for the full period of the program
For any questions regarding the program fee, deposits and payment schedule, or cancellations and refunds, please email: usa@goabbeyroad.com
Comment s'inscrire
Please complete the short online USA Inquiry Form and we will mail you our USA programs brochure and send you an email with more information about the program.
If you have any special questions about the program or need assistance with the application process, please call our France office at +33 6 33 51 05 64 or our California office at 1-310-276-1745, or email us at usa@goabbeyroad.com
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