Alpine Exploration & Alpine Challenge

Alpine Exploration (ages 13-15) and Alpine Challenge students (ages 16-18) attend academic classes in the morning and participate in group activities during the afternoon. Most students participate in the Core Program. Some students choose to focus on English or French language in a Specialty Program. The specialty programs join the afternoon and evening activities as well as weekend excursions whenever possible. For more information on the optional ESL and French Immersion programs, see Special Programs.

Accommodations

• Alpine Exploration and Alpine Challenge students live in separate comfortable residence halls that are organized by age and grouped by SIS Family Groups led by faculty and staff ‘parents.’
• Boys’ and girls’ rooms are located in separate areas.
• Each room includes a private bathroom and accommodates two to four students. Whenever possible, roommates are assigned to create diversity in student nationalities and native languages.

Morning Classes (not all classes are offered every session)

Please click on the link (coming soon) for a brief course description.

• Acting, Improvisation, Stage Combat, Theater Production
• Art 2D, Art 3D, Photography
• Beginning ESL (see Speciality Programs)
• Computer Applications, Webpage Design
• Continuing ESL
• Creative Writing in English, English Literature, Journalism
• Entrepreneurship
• French I, French II, French III and Spanish I
• French Immersion (see Specialty Programs)
• Journalism
• Leadership
• Pre-Algebra/Algebra I
• People & Places (England, France, Italy, Spain)
• Physics Discovery
• Piano, Guitar, Songwriting, Voice, and Music Theory
• SAT Test Preparation and TOEFL TEST Preparation
• United Nations Simulation
• World Cultures and Religions
• IB Prep Courses: Math Prep/Algebra 2, IB Extended Essay Prep

Afternoon Activities

• Choice of sports, including soccer, parapenting, volleyball, tennis, basketball, floor hockey, skating, strength training, horseback riding, climbing, white-water rafting, mountain biking, ultimate Frisbee, swimming, golf, hiking, and aerobics
• Tennis lessons with a professional coach
• Arts and crafts
• Cooking and baking

Supervised Afternoon Excursions (SIS Family groups) may include:

• Château de Chillon
• Aqua Parc
• Martigny and its world renowned Foundation Gianadda art museum
• Lausanne Olympic Museum
• Nestlé-Cailler Chocolate Factory

Evening Activities may include:

• Student theatre productions and talent shows
• Visiting guest performers
• Montreux Jazz Festival (first session only)
• The SIS-run Red Frog Café, with a large screen satellite TV, DVD and video, pool and foosball tables, and a snack bar

Supervised Weekend Excursions may include:

• Lausanne (Olympic Museum)
• Geneva (European seat of the United Nations)
• Bern (Capital of Switzerland with a thousand year-old medieval city center)
• Lucerne (Picturesque ancient cathedral, monasteries, and the Swiss Museum of Transport and Communications)
• Zermatt (At the foot of the Matterhorn)