Front Royal, VA— A group of the students of Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School of Ashbourne, England, will experience a whirlwind, short-term exchange program over the next ten days, using Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal, VA, as their base of operations.
The QEGS students arrive in the U.S. on Wednesday, October 24th and meet their host students, who all attend Randolph-Macon. For the next week and a half, the QEGS students will experience as much of American life as they can squeeze in. They will spend the first day in Washington, DC, visiting monuments and museums, and then attend a play at Wayside Theatre in Middletown that evening. On Friday, October 26th, they will sit in on classes and experience American education, then spend the weekend with their host families. On Monday, they will spend one more day in classes before resuming their touring of the area.
The rest of next week will include visits to the U.S. Capitol, Mount Vernon, Luray Caverns and Skyline Drive, a tour of the University of Virginia, and a tour of Monticello. The group will depart on Friday, November 2, 2012.
The exchange between the two schools has been occurring for the last ten years. Each fall the QEGS students visit Randolph-Macon Academy, and then during spring break, the R-MA students visit QEGS. This particular trip is particularly poignant as Dr. Roger Wilkes, who will accompany the QEGS students this week, retired as the headmaster of QEGS this past summer, and Maj Gen Henry Hobgood, the president of Randolph-Macon Academy, will retire at the end of this school year.
Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA), founded in 1892, is a college-preparatory, coeducational day and boarding school for students in grades 6 through 12. Students in grades 9-12 participate in R-MA’s 91st Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and have the option to participate in a unique flight program. R-MA is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is located in Front Royal, VA.
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