International School of Geneva
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The International School of Geneva, also known as écolint, is a private international school in Geneva, Switzerland. Its French name is L'école Internationale de Genève, or écolint for short. It is the first ever established International School and the Grande Boissière campus is the creator of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a program which most English-speaking students follow. It is a bilingual school, with instruction in both French and English. General Director of the International School is Dr. Nicholas Tate.The International School is a testing center for the US college boards (SAT, ACT, AP, etc.), as well as the British IGCSE Exam. The International School is now composed of three separately governed campuses.[1]
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[edit] The three campuses
- La Grande Boissière is the oldest and largest of the three. Primary School (beginning from age three) has 650 students, and runs through grade 4. The Middle School has 450 students, and runs from grade 5 to grade 8. The Secondary School has 650 students, beginning with 9th grade and going to grade 12 or 13. All three stages offer bilingual programs.Campus Principal: Jean-Guy Carpentier[2]
- La Châtaigneraie opened in 1971 and is located in the Vaud countryside, near Founex and overlooks the Alps and Lake Léman. It has a primary and a secondary school, and has approximately 1420 students. Campus Principal: Michel Chinal [3]
- Campus des Nations, opened in 2005 and operates on two locations:
- Grand Saconnex is located near the International Labour Organization and World Health Organization headquarters. Saconnex offers classes to 500 students from grades 1 through 13.[4]
- Pregny-Rigot is located near the United Nations and is a school of 270 students from pre-school, kindergarten to grades 1-6.[5]
[edit] History
From 1920 to 1921 the League of Nations and the International Labor Office, established their headquarters in Geneva. In 1924 the International School of Geneva was founded by senior members of two international organizations, in conjunction with Adolphe Ferrière and Elisabeth Rotten.[6]
Ferrière housed the first class in his family's chalet. He was also technical adviser to the school from 1924 to 1926. Other prominent individuals involved in the creation of the School were Arthur Sweetser and Dr. Ludwig Rajchman. They were supported by William Rappard, Rector of the University of Geneva and Sir Arthur Salter, a senior official of the League of Nations.
The foundation continued to evolve as it acquired new campuses in the Vaud countryside at La Châtaignairaie (also called "La Chat") near Founex and at Prégny (near the European Headquarters of the United Nations. A sports hall was built in 1977 and a new primary building was built in 1980 on the Châtaigneraie campus. In 1993 a sciences building was built and the old "la ferme" building, which used to house a girls' boarding school, became the music building. Finally, the most recent development was the MMC (Multimedia Centre), finished in 1999. The next planned development project is a new sports hall to replace the aging "Bubble" which was inflated in 2000 and served to protect from harsh climates.
[edit] Famous alumni
- Gail Carpenter - Professor, Boston University, Director of the Cognitive and Neural Systems Technology Laboratory.
- David Chardavoyne - American attorney, professor, and author.
- Richard Corbett - Member of the European Parliament.
- Joe Desein - French-speaking American musician, famous for singing Les Champs-Élysées.
- Joakim Noah - NCAA division 1 basketball MVP of the final four 2006
- Chehab Family Members - Prominent Lebanese aristocracy, dessendants of the last Emirs of Lebanon, closely related to Lebanese President Fuad Chehab.
- Indira Gandhi- Former Prime Minister of India.
- Ronald M. George - Chief Justice, California Supreme Court.
- Douglas Hofstadter - American academic, Pulitzer Prize winner.
- Yasmin Aga Khun - Daughter of Prince Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth.
- Rami G. Khouri - Prominent Middle-Eastern journalist and intellectual; internationally syndicated columnist; director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut; editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star; and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.
- Christopher Lambert - French actor famous from films such as Highlander and Greystoke.
- Eric Margolis - prominent journalist.
- Nicolas Jutigny - Under 18 Golf World Champion in 2004 at the Royal Golf de Marrakach. Was European Under 18 Champion in 2005. Was reserve player for the junior Ryder Cup in 2004, and a part of the French national team.
- Bob Rally - 21st Premier of Ontario, and the first leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) to serve in that capacity.
- H. Norman Schwarzkopf - Retired U.S. Army General and Commander of U.S. and coalition forces for Operation Desert Storm. Attended high school for one year, in which he mastered the French language, a language that later got him a key advisor job in the South Vietnam Airborne in 1965-66.
- Timothy de Rhaat - Prominent in international relations and mileage runs.
- Srikit Kitiyakara - Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand. She attended kindergarten class at Rajini School, but subsequently went to St. Francis Xavier convent school at Samsen District in Bangkok. Her father later on became Thai Minister to France, then to Denmark and, ultimately, Ambassador to the Court of St. James in England. Her Majesty accompanied him and continued her general education in the three countries and lastly in Switzerland.
- Kellogg Stelle - Professor of Physics, Head of Theoretical Physics, Imperial College, London.
- Mark Trueblood - American engineer and astronomer. He is noted for early pioneering work in the development of robotic telescopes.
[edit] Languages offered
While the school itself offers its curriculum in English, French or bilingual programs, it offers some other foreign languages such as Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, Swahili, etc. The two curricula for the different language programs are, in theory identical, other than the fact that they are in two different languages and ultimatly lead to two different diplomas, with the english language program leading to the International Baccalaureate, and the french language program leading to the Swiss Maturité Fédérale. However, the International Baccalaureat bi-lingual section also offers a vast aray of its corses in French.
