Founded in 1964, School Year Abroad (SYA) is the only secondary-level program that allows students to live with a European or Asian family for an entire academic year while earning U.S. graduation credits and preparing for selective U.S. colleges and universities.
Each of the schools, in China, France, Italy, Spain, and Vietnam, enrolls approximately 60 students to complete their junior or senior year of high school. Students come from public and private schools across the United States. Taft has been a member of the SYA consortium of schools since the early 1970s.
The central elements of SYA-the homestay and an academic program emphasizing foreign language acquisition-ensure that students return home with real mastery of a second language. At the same time, instructors from U.S. schools guarantee that they do not lose ground in their core American courses: math and English. Extracurricular activities and organized travel round out the year.