Study and Travel Abroad

Whether you're in Perú, France, Spain, Italy, or China, as a Commonwealth student, you can step into another person's shoes a half a world away.
Learning a foreign language at Commonwealth often includes the chance to experience another culture through one of our exchanges and trips. During spring break in March, Commonwealth students travel to Spain and France with faculty chaperones. In return, students from Granada, Spain, and Strasbourg, France, visit the school and stay with Commonwealth families.
 
While not every exchange happens every year, the aim is for all the participants to experience it from both sides. When the French and Spanish students are in Boston, students and teachers offer special classes and sponsor social events. Students of Latin often travel to see antiquities in Rome and Pompeii on another chaperoned trip in March, while a cultural trip to Perú with a Commonwealth group is regularly offered during the summer for students of Spanish. Students of Mandarin also often have the opportunity to travel to China. For those who live with host families, the stay is demanding and rewarding, prompting one student to report with awe that “I could speak and people actually understood.”
 
All students can avail themselves of these study abroad opportunities, regardless of their ability to pay; the Mary P. Chatfield Cultural Scholarship underwrites travel for Project Week, Senior Projects, summer projects, and our exchanges in Spain and France. 

"Traveling to Paris helped me bond with peers while learning the idiosyncrasies of French language and culture. I couldn't have learned what I learned if I hadn't traveled in person. Most notably, my accent and idiomatic vocabulary improved dramatically.... All in all the experience was unmatchable."
—Penny '23

Summer 2022 Spanish and French Trip Highlights

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