Bloom Hamner

Love of Languages Carries Will Clarke '19 to Distant Shore


 

Will Clarke '19 with family after his Senior Speech on October 12.

Love of Languages Carries Will Clarke '19 to Distant Shore

Christ School senior to study abroad in Morocco

Will Clarke '19 can laugh about it now.

The Christ School senior failed out of Spanish so badly at a previous school that it was suggested he should never take a foreign language again.

Will has gone the complete opposite direction as a Greenie.

He can hold his own in Arabic and Italian. And now Will is teaching himself French for a good reason. He'll spend his final semester of high school in Morocco with a Council on International Educational Exchange study abroad program.

Will leaves for the University of Rabat on January 27. He expects to be back in his hometown of Fairview, N.C., around May 1, in plenty of time to walk across Yard A for graduation.

"I wanted to make my senior year different," Will said. "I looked at what Charlie Schilling '18 did (studying abroad last school year in Spain) as an example. I'm looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing old friends. I'm looking forward to playing rugby and getting lost in the streets. I really want to take my grasp of all these languages to a new level. And if any friends from Christ School want to come and visit over Spring Break, they are welcome."

Will credits Registrar Jennifer Bird, World Languages teacher Jennifer MacDonald, and Father Kirk Brown for helping him make the CIEE opportunity possible.

Rabat is the capital of Morocco. The coastal city is the seventh-largest in Morocco with an urban population of 580,000