Global Experiences

Each year, Belmont Hill faculty plan and lead students on a variety of domestic and international trips that reflect our teachers’ and students’ wide-ranging interests. 

In addition to annual language and culture trips (Chinese, French and Spanish-speaking countries) and the Kenney Legacy Trip, we offer trips that engage students in community service, ancient and contemporary history, and culture, marine biology, music, and sport.

Within the last few years, Belmont Hill has offered trips to the following destinations:                 

• African-American History & Culture Trip: Alabama; Georgia; Louisiana; Mississippi

• Australia and New Zealand

• Classics Trips:  Italy

• Chinese Culture Trips: China; Taiwan

• Community Service Trips:  Chico, CA; Tampa, FL; Beaufort, SC; Fort Myers, FL; New Orleans, LA

• French Language Trips:  France; Senegal

• Germany: Jewish History & Culture

• Hawai’i: Environment and Geology

• Iceland:  Geothermal Energy & Sustainability Culture

• Kenney Legacy Trip (London, Belgium, Normandy)

• Outdoor Adventure Trips:  Arizona & Utah; CA Sierras; New Mexico & Texas; Grand Tetons & Yellowstone

• Spanish Culture Trips: Spain; Costa Rica

• Morocco

Nearly every year, a handful of Belmont Hill students elect to spend a summer, semester or full-year off-campus exploring new cultures, disciplines, or social environments.

Belmont Hill supports these ventures in a variety of ways.  We offer several on-campus opportunities for students to learn about study away programs, through assemblies with program staff as well as from Belmont Hill students who have returned from spending time off-campus.  Departing students work closely with their advisors, division heads, and Dean of Studies to craft their schedules and prepare for a seamless academic transition back to Belmont Hill. The College Guidance office provides protocols to ensure that time away from campus enhances students’ college prospects.

The following study away programs are supported by Belmont Hill.

SCHOOL YEAR ABROAD SYA offers semester & year-long programs in France, Italy, & Spain. SYA guides students through a challenging curriculum focused on developing skills for successful engagement in an increasingly interdependent world. Central to the SYA experience is the adventure of understanding different languages, cultures and peoples. SWISS SEMESTER Swiss Semester is a coeducational program of academic, personal, and physical challenge for roughly forty high school sophomores in Zermatt, Switzerland.    Semester Schools Network Programs   ALZAR SCHOOL Idaho & Chile (Idaho only during COVID) - emphasis on experiential learning, leadership development, and eco/cultural awareness-building.  HIGH MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE Outdoor adventure program in Leadville, CO.   THE ISLAND SCHOOL Semester program in the Bahamas with an emphasis on experiential learning and marine biology. MAINE COAST SEMESTER: CHEWONKI  is a semester-long academically rigorous residential program in Wiscasset, ME, serving high school juniors. Learning takes place in classrooms, in the field, on the coast, at the farm, in the forest, and on extended wilderness trips.   MOUNTAIN SCHOOL of Milton Academy is a semester school and working farm for academically motivated high school juniors in rural Vermont. SEGL - the School for Ethics & Global Leadership is a semester-long residential program that focuses on ethical thinking skills, leadership development, and international affairs in Washington, DC or Johannesburg, South Africa.  Learn more about Semester School Programs

The internal Global Experiences website offers links to numerous summer opportunities and resources.  In addition we offer summer opportunities workshops and individual counseling to help students craft their summer adventures.

In recent years, Belmont Hill students have participated in the following international summer programs:  LITA Spain; NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth); SEGL (School for Ethics & Global Leadership); Island School.

International School-to-School Exchange

Every year, Belmont Hill welcomes an exchange student from Bishops Diocesan College (Cape Town, South Africa). Every year boys from these schools jump at the opportunity to experience life on our American campus.

While reciprocal exchange is encouraged, students who wish to host, but have conflicts preventing summer travel, may also participate. That said, Belmont Hill boys who have gone on exchange have loved the experience.

Hosting

The Bishops exchange takes place in the late fall (students arrive at the end of October and return just after Thanksgiving).

We encourage families to consider hosting our exchange students.  Hosting invitations are sent out annually in the late spring and summer.

The Kageyama-Hunt Lecture Series, established in 2012 by Belmont Hill parents Bill Hunt and Yuko Kageyama-Hunt P ‘11, ‘18, brings speakers to campus who model global citizenship and can inspire generations of Belmont Hill boys to embrace the challenges and opportunities of an interconnected world. Click here to learn more about the Belmont Hill Speaker Program.

Since the Series’ inception, the following international speakers have spoken before and with the school community:

2025 - Spanish-Peruvian photojournalist Moises Saman, whose work has documented two decades of conflicts and human upheaval from Afghanistan to Syria, Iraq to Haiti.

2024 - Indian physician and healthcare administrator Karan Thakur, MD, who is the Group Sustainability Lead for India’s largest group of hospitals.

2023 - former Taiwanese legislator-at-large and public policy expert, Jason Hsu.

2021-2022 - South African federal judge and former human rights lawyer Taswell Papier and stem cell researcher and Nobel Prize laureate Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD.

2020-2021 - Program postponed due to Covid-19

2019 - Hicham Alaoui, scholar on democratization and secularization at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, son of the late Prince Moulay Abdallah, son of King Mohammad V of Morocco. 

2018 - Katie Murphy and Nada Elattar, co-founders of Ahlan Simsim, a joint program of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Sesame Street that educates child refugees from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. 

2017 - Hallah Hrund Logadottir, co-founder and co-director of the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, former director of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University.

2016 - David Keith, Harvard professor of climate engineering and public policy, CEO of Carbon Engineering. 

2015 - Kim Phuc, "Napalm Girl" from Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972.

James Stavridis, Admiral (USN) and Dean of Fletcher School of Diplomacy.

2014 - Maria Antonia Gardia de la Torre, Colombian human rights journalist.

2013 - Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico (2006-2012).

Belmont Hill encourages faculty professional development in a variety of ways, including through travel. Supported via the school’s professional growth budget as well as through the Byrnes Grant Program, faculty travel enriches the student experience by deepening teachers’ knowledge in their fields, introducing them to new perspectives and colleagues, and fuel excitement for continued learning.

Initiated by Mr. William L. Byrnes ‘40 and his son Randy ‘65, the Byrnes Grant Program provides “financial resources for selected teachers to pursue off-campus activities which they consider exceptional opportunities for them to reach new heights of enthusiasm and effectiveness with their students.”

Recent recipients of the Byrnes Grant and professional growth funds have conducted a wide range of experience-research with an eye to enhancing the school’s curricular and co-curricular programs:

• Galapagos Islands Middle School Science; Biology; AP Biology
• Iceland Sustainability Club; AP Environment Science, Energy Inquiry
• National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar: John Steinbeck, Social Critic and Ecologist - Environmental Science
• England: William Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Globe Theater - English 4, Page & Stage
• US South prep for African American History & Culture Trip; African American Studies; African American Literature
• Germany prep for student trip focused on Jewish History & Culture in pre-WWII Germany; 20th-Century World History
• England & Germany- Roman frontier Advanced Latin 3 course, AP Latin
• Ghana - African and African Diaspora experience 20th-Century World History; US History
• Nepal and India - Eastern Connections English courses; Advisory Program; Form VI Philosophy

Belmont Hill also supports faculty travel to domestic and international conferences where teachers give presentations on Belmont Hill’s curricula and school culture. Faculty also have the opportunity to learn from peer schools and colleagues about their programs:

• International Boys Schools Coalition (IBSC), of which Belmont Hill is a founding partner.  In 2025 Belmont Hill will host the international IBSC conference.
  • Over the years, Faculty have presented on a wide array of topics at various IBSC conferences, including those in:
    • Australia (Southport School)
    • England (Harrow School)
    • New Zealand (Westlake Boys’ High School)
    • South Africa (Bishops Diocesan College)
    • US - Tennessee (Montgomery Bell Academy)