Winter break begins on December 17, but some international students are leaving campus as early as December 10 and completing the last week of December classes virtually. The School allowed this early departure because of new Covid-19 cases on campus and the worldwide changes in quarantine mandates, spurred by the Omicron Covid-19 variant, that may affect international student travel.
Students returning to countries that require strict quarantines have known since October that they could leave campus early for Winter Break. Ms. Ashley Sinclair, Director of Global Programs and Adviser to International Students, notified international students and families in an email on October 19 that “students returning to their home country whose quarantine is two weeks or longer” would be able to either “return home at the end of the fall term” or “return home at the end of the second week of classes in December.”
The School hoped to ensure that quarantines did not limit students’ time with family during a “well-deserved break,” as Ms. Sinclair put it. Students who have left campus early will join classes remotely on Zoom or asynchronously watch a recording of the class.
On December 8, in a second email, Ms. Sinclair extended the offer of leaving campus early to all international students, regardless of the quarantine measures imposed by the home countries. The offer was precipitated by a rise in on-campus Covid-19 cases and the spread of the Omicron variant across the globe.
International students must return to campus on the original date of January 3. The School will test all students for Covid-19 upon their return to campus.
Dean of Students Mr. Mike Velez ’00 acknowledged the challenges that come with the return to a semi-hybrid model. With the class schedule not as adaptive as last year’s and catered to the students on campus, he said that virtual learning complicates assessments, especially with the time zone differences.
Dr. Carol Chen-Lin, a Chinese teacher at Choate, has a student planning to learn virtually starting on the week of December 13. Dr. Chen-Lin said, “I understand how important it is for families to get together during the holiday season.” However, she is confident in Choate’s ability to integrate virtual students, seeing how Choate has developed remote-teaching strategies in the past two years.
Madison Lee ’22, an international student from South Korea, is thankful that the School allowed her to leave early. “We have to quarantine for ten days, and I was initially worried that I wouldn’t be able to return home at all if I stayed for the whole week,” she said.
Lee noted that teachers have been understanding of her needs while living in a different time zone by allowing her to learn asynchronously and meet outside of class time during the last week of school. However, she acknowledges that it will be challenging for teachers to ensure that the remote and in-person students are under similar conditions for completing assessments. Still, since Lee is only taking classes virtually for four days, she believes that learning remotely will not be much of a challenge for her.
