Christ's College Exchange 2017

Christ’s College Exchange by Blake Robison, Thomas Carr, and Isaac Wills

First of all, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Warner Family as well Mr. Gioia and the school for providing us with the means to this international exchange. Our trip to Christ’s College in Christchurch, New Zealand was truly amazing.

We arrived in Christchurch during a school break, so we had nearly two weeks in the country to travel and experience the culture. The majority of this time was spent on a trip to Queenstown that all three host families had planned and coordinated. Our time in this beautiful city was filled with many activities, sightseeing, and excitement. For several days, we experienced the beautiful skiing at Coronet Peak, one of the top ski mountains in the South Island. The snow was ideal, and our time on the slopes was memorable.  

More activities in Queenstown included thrill rides such as bungee jumping, a ride on the Shotover Jet, and Luge racing. In the evenings, we had time to walk around the tourist city and see all that Queenstown has to offer.  On the final day, we took a gondola to the top of a nearby mountain and saw the city from above.  It was an unbelievable experience.

Our time at the school was great as well. During our three weeks in class at Christ’s College, we attended classes with our host students and eventually selected our own course schedule. The classes and teachers were all very interesting. The small class sizes and the dynamics of the classes resembled MBA in many ways. One big difference between the schools, however, was the way in which grades were structured. Students at Christ’s College were given less homework and more large projects. These projects were graded based on a set academic criteria by the New Zealand Education Board. Also, students in New Zealand schools tended to dress more formally. The advisories at Christ's College were much bigger and existed in physical houses such as the one depicted in pictures below. We enjoyed the house as a place to both work and relax. The house environment was productive and brought students closer. Moreover, competitions between houses in activities such as basketball added to the camaraderie of students each week. Overall, many of the students and teachers reminded us of those which we work with at MBA.

All of the host families were excellent. They planned activities and trips to provide us with the full Kiwi experience. We each plan on keeping in touch with these families as well as friends from our time in New Zealand. Several of the students have even communicated an interest in returning to Nashville. It was a true “exchange” in the sense that the students from each school

Once again, we would like to thank the Warner Family as well as Mr.Gioia and Mrs. Scholer for providing this unique opportunity to us and each of the other exchange students in the class of 2018. Roll Red!