Public schools with host family in Canada: Calgary, Alberta.

Borja Pérez-Mínguez | Travel blog

The city of Calgary is the capital of Alberta  and it’s considered one of the best cities in the world to live in. Currently is also considered the cleanest city on the planet so it’s a perfect destination for students who want to study for an academic year program close to an urban environment, and surrounded by spectacular nature options like mountains or top class ski resorts. Calgary hosted the Olympic Games on 1988 and has some of the best ski facilities a resorts on earth, perfect for ski or snowbarding enthusiastics.

Alberta is also one of the most Canadian provinces since most of their students are domestic and their international population at schools is significantly lower than any other area in the country like British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario or Newfoundland so it’s undoubtedly one of the best options available for students who want a real Canadian immersion and focus the entire length of the program improving their English skills.

All the schools we selected at International Academic Programs are really modern and with state of the art facilities, some of them with millionaire renovations in every aspect of the campus: academic buildings, labs, 3D printers, laser cuts, cutting edge technology programs, and amazing sport fields like soccer, rugby, tennis, basketball or volleyball among many other specialties.  The same goes for art programs since students get to join theater, drama, movie and tv production, dancing, ballet and all kinds of music specialties.

About the environment, spectacular nature surroundings are just miles away from the city and allow all kind of activities like hiking, fishing, camping, kayaking, and many more students get to experience with their host families.  

The city is very safe and offers many easy transportation options like public buses or the Sky Train so students get to travel to movie theaters, shopping malls, museums, bowling centers or sport events on their own in a very fast, cheap, safe and comfortable transport system.  This way they don’t need the host family to drive them around and is undoubtedly an amazing destination for students used to live in major cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, etc and want to study an academic year abroad with all the amenities of a big city.  

At the following link you will find all the details of the program: https://www.internationalacademicprograms.es/en/canada/

Public schools with host family in Canada: Newfoundland.

Borja Pérez-Mínguez | Travel blog

St. John’s is the most urban city and capital of the Newfoundland province with 110.000 people and thanks to it’s location, about 5 hours flight from London, the closest area of Canada to fly from any European country.

The city was founded by Spanish fishermen on the XVI century (that’s the reason of it’s name and it’s considered the oldest city in North America) and offers one of the warmest climates in all Canada with very mild winters (they never usually go below -5º) compared with the cold provinces of Manitoba, Ontario or Alberta with winters up to -35º. For these reasons Newfoundland is undoubtedly one of the best options to study academic year programs in Canada, specially for students that don’t like extremely cold environments.

In one of our latest trips we got to visit the entire area, located in a spectacular nature environmet surrounded by water that allows students to experience the amenities of a medium sized city (movie theaters, malls, water parks, bowling, shopping, restaurants, etc) with many nature related activities like hiking, mountain biking, climbing, camping, kayaking or fishing just to mention a few.

Among the many schools we selected at International Academic Programs, the ones with the best facilities were located at the own St. John’s city, and all of them offered a wide range of programs and academic opportunities like smart boards, 3D printers, laser cuts and many sport and extracurricular activies like music and art related subjects.

For these reasons and being one of the fewest urban options in the provice, it’s essential to keep in mind the city schools are the ones with the highest demand so in order to be able to secure a place, we need to apply with plenty of time since most of the spots are gone by Christmas of the year before the program starts.

The city also offers many opportunities for sport enthusiastics and allows students to practice at local clubs the ones they like the most during the entire length of the program: soccer, hockey, swimming, tennis, basketball, etc. There are many options both at the schools and at the cummunity (extra cost, but very affordable) so like in all the academic programs and destinations we promote, in order to select the best possible school for each candidate, we must establish the student’s main areas of interest.

It’s important to keep in mind the city of St. John’s is located in a flat area and therefore doesn’t have any mountains so students who want to ski must travel to farther areas outside of the city. For ski and snowbarding enthusiastics the province of Newfoundland also offers mid sized towns located in rural environments and surrounded by all kinds of nature opportunities like mountains or spectacular ski resorts that allow students to practically ski every day for most part of the academic year, so this would be one of the main parameters we should keep in mind in order to select the best possible school and area for each candidate.

The Newfoundland province offers an optional adventure program with monthly activities like whale and iceberg sightings, zip lining, ski weekends and all kinds of field trips so it’s a great opportunity for students who want to be involved in all kinds of nature and adventure activities.

At the following link you will find all the details of the program: https://www.internationalacademicprograms.es/en/canada/

Boarding schools in the USA: New England.

Borja Pérez-Mínguez | Travel blog

The east coast of the United States of America is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious areas of the world towards education and academic tradition and one othe best options for students who want to study academic year programs. Every private boarding school we promote at International Academic Programs has the College Prep denomination, and therefore they are specialized in preparing their students to obtain the best possible academic results in order to secure places at the best universities and colleges in the USA, specially the Ivy League top universities located in New England: Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Darmouth, Brown, MIT, Boston University, etc.

The spectacular New England setting allows academic year students to join amazing and first class ski and snowbarding programs. Thanks to the perfect location and proximity to top mountains and ski resorts, (some of them are just 30 minutes away from the schools), the students get to practice and compete against other private schools up to 3-6 days a week during the snow season.

About the environment, the tradition of most schools is being located in rural landscapes so students get to focus on their academic results with trips to major towns during the weekends. For candidates used to live in big cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, or Munich there are also schools situated in urban settings close to cities like Portland, or Boston.

For weekend activities, the students get to choose among a wide range of opportunities such us games against other schools, trips to the major cities, shopping centers, movies, restaurants, ski trips, beach trips, NBA games, amusement parks, etc.

Our selection of private boarding schools includes options for every candidate: mixed schools, single sex schools, schools specialized in STEM programs, (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) specific sports, facilities, or any other specialty.  In our many trips we have even visited some top junior boarding schools for students between 10 and 14 years old.

Every school offers spectacular academic and extracurricular programs like engineering, robotics, programming, coding, virtual reality, movie and tv poduction, theater, chorus or music programs with state of the art facilities.

At the following link you will find all the details of the program: https://www.internationalacademicprograms.es/en/usa-boarding/

Private schools with host family in USA: New Hampshire, Boston.

Borja Pérez-Mínguez | Travel blog

In one of our latest trips to the United States we got to visit some of the best private schools for academic year programs in New Hamsphire, less than an hour from Boston. All the schools we selected are catholic and offer state of the art facilities in academics, sports, music and all kinds of arts.

They are located in very quiet and safe environments, small size New England towns of about 30.000 – 90.000 people each and easy transportation to Boston, about 50 minutes away by bus. These towns offer all kinds of recreation activitities for young students like movie theaters, shopping malls, restaurants or bowling centers in an unparalleled setting that combines urban enterntainment with nature activities since they are surrounded by beaches, lakes, rivers, parks or forests. During the warm months the spectacular area allows many activities such as beach trips, sailing, rafting, kayaking or hiking, while in winter time the students get to ski at the spectacular mountains and resorts located less than 20 minutes away.

As part of the academic year program, free of charge and without any extra cost, the schools offer a wide range of different activities of all kind like trips to Boston, visits to the best universities in the area (Yale, Harvard, Brown, MIT…), for students considering studying college in the United Sates, NBA and American Football games, movies, theater

The atmosphere at the schools is very friendly, (with 90% of American students) and all the international students we met highly recommended studying one academic year in the United States at those centers since it became one of the best experiences of their lives.

At the following link you will find all the details of the program: https://www.internationalacademicprograms.es/en/usa-family/