Mavericks Abroad
From service trips to sister school exchanges to summer study, Montrose offers signature international experiences rooted in the school's transformational education.
Students benefit from a broad variety of worldwide options, from cultural and language immersion to cultivating a heart of service abroad. These international experiences help Montrose students develop self-knowledge, engage the world and cultivate excellent habits of mind, heart and character.
In fall 2022 alone, Montrose has offered multiple international opportunities, hosting 6 students from Izaga School in Pamplona, Spain and 18 girls from Rosemont School in Dublin, Ireland, while 9 Montrose students traveled to Les Vignes school in Paris, France. Additional exchanges will continue this spring as the school hosts French students and Mavericks travel to Spain and Ireland. The exchange trips include the opportunity to host a student from a sister school, and to travel to live and attend school with her. This year students will build international friendships with peers from sister schools in France, Spain, Ireland and Guatemala, and exchanges with additional sister schools in other countries are under study. Read one junior's account of her immersion experience in France.
Montrose also offers a longstanding partnership with local nonprofit Mustard Seed Communities. Upper school students take an "alternative spring break," in which they travel to Jamaica or the Dominican Republic to care for children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. "I'm excited that the service trip will resume this spring after a pause due to COVID," said Lisa Derendorf, Director of Student Life. "This trip allows our girls to give of their talent and time to help those who are most marginalized from society."
Most unique to Montrose is the signature study abroad trip to Italy, In the Footsteps of Dante. After a seminal study of classical texts throughout their Montrose education, especially Dante’s Inferno, students visit Florence, Siena and Rome, Italy to witness the great works of Renaissance art, architecture, history, and religion that they have studied. Site visits and classes are designed by college professor and scholar Dr. David Alvis, professor of Government and Political Science at Wofford College in South Carolina. Read more about the Italy trip in June 2022.
An independent school for girls in grades 6-12 guided by the teachings of the Catholic Church.
