An unforgettable international experience – ASC

By Eva Pascual, Marketing department, Sánchez-Casal Academy.

When other parents ask me why they should enroll their children in the Summer Camp of Sánchez-Casal Academy, I can give them many reasons, and all of them are compelling arguements.

I talk to them, for example, about having confidence in a totally committed staff, about the quality of tennis teaching and the exclusive training method, and about the 24/7 attention to the player, among others things. But there is one argument that seems particularly enticing to me: the extraordinary international atmosphere that students live and breathe at the Sanchez-Casal Academy campus.

There are many schools and sports entities that claim to offer cultural diversity, but let me give you only one piece of information to begin: since 2011, players from 100 different countries, and from 5 different continents, have visited Sánchez-Casal Barcelona. Citizens from more than half of the countries in the world have trained with us!

If we look at the 2019 figures only, we were visited by players from 67 different countries, who also come from all 5 continents. The variety of cultures, ways of understanding the world, ways of expressing themselves in different languages and coexisting harmoniously in our Academy, provide an incredible personal enrichment experience for all the players that visit us throughout the year.

There are many benefits of living such an international experience, and I would like to highlight some of them:

An international environment calls into question many of our cultural ‘assumptions’: premises that we take for granted in our environment and that may be radically different in another environment. It opens our minds and makes us rethink our basic assumptions, discovering that there are lots of ways of thinking that are different from ours.

Sharing concerns, approaches, and difficulties with people from other cultures helps us to have a better understanding of global issues. We become more minded open, more understanding and more flexible to find solutions to common problems.

Connecting with people who speak another language also forces us to make an effort to improve our communication skills. It helps us to improve our own language skills and introduces us to the parlance of other tongues. In young children, the impact on their motivation to learn languages is awesome. And the improvement in self-confidence that unfolds due to exposure to previously unknown situations, is also amazing.

All of this is can be summarized in the term international mindedness: a fundamental concept of IB philosophy, which is the educational framework that students in the onsite ES International Elementary School have been following for the last 2 years. It’s true to say, however, that the ASC community was living and breathing the values of international mindedness in its day to day for many years before the IB curriculum was introduced.

This international mindedness is possibly the best life lesson your child will experience at ASC, and it make their stay in Sánchez-Casal an unforgettable experience for life.

Eva Pascual
Marketing department, Sánchez-Casal Academy