April 5, 2011

 It is 6 a.m. Pacific time, and 3 a.m. Hawai‘i time. I am sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting for my connecting flight to Washington, D.C. From there I’ll fly to Munich, Germany and then on to Ankara, the capital of Turkey and the first stop in my spring 2011 admissions recruiting trip. I’ll also be traveling to:

  • Ankara, Turkey
  • Tbilisi, Georgia
  • Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Astana, Kazakhstan
  • Abu Dhabi, UAE
  • Doha, Qatar
  • Kuwait City, Kuwait
  • Amman, Jordan

       I will be in Ankara through April 9. My schedule is fairly full and I will be traveling with a group of other boarding schools from the U.S., Canada, and Singapore. While in Ankara (formerly known as Angora – home of the Angora goat with its famous mohair wool), we will be visiting several local schools and holding mini-fairs for students to learn more about HPA, our post-graduate program (Year 13), and summer school.

       We will host a reception for local education counselors to learn more about the advantages of attending a boarding school and the opportunities available here. Finally, we will host a reception for the public to meet with us personally. Many students from Turkey already are attending boarding schools in New England. We believe that students will begin to look farther West for new opportunities and unique experiences. Fortunately, HPA will be able to deliver on both counts. I am looking forward to talking to families about the strategic advantage of attending HPA when applying to a U.S. university.

       I also am encouraged that Turkish Airlines started a direct flight from Turkey to Los Angeles in March 2011. This will make it even easier for families to consider educational opportunities in the West; they will have the convenience of only one plane transfer before landing in beautiful Hawai’i. If you know of anyone who might be interested in learning more about HPA, please e-mail me at jclark@hpa.edu and I would be happy to schedule a time to meet. After Ankara, I’m off to Tbilisi!

-Josh Clark

Travel News

Final Thoughts

Overall, the trip was very successful in that we were able to find students interested in studying specifically in Hawai’i, either for a summer or for the academic year. Obviously, we are on the opposite side of the world, and so distance is a major factor for families and might prevent them from coming even though they are interested. We believe that there is a small group of families who... Read More >

April 22

My final stop was Amman, Jordan. Only a small group of schools continued to the last stop, and this was more of a research trip to see if it would be a viable stop in the future for multiple schools. We visited the campus of King’s Academy, the boarding school founded by the King of Jordan (a graduate of a U..S boarding school) and learned about possible options for exchanges with our... Read More >

April 21

We arrived in Kuwait in the morning and hit the ground running. After checking in at our hotel we had enough time to eat a quick lunch before we headed out the door to visit the AmidEast Center in Kuwait. This program supports U.S. education through the State Department (similar to the Education U.S.A. offices run by the U.S. government around the world, only AmidEast is focused in the... Read More >

April 20

In the morning we drove about 30 minutes outside of Doha to the Doha Leadership Academy. It is a boys school with students from all over the Middle East. As the name suggests, it is a leadership academy, but borrows the discipline and order of a military academy. After their lunch we met with students and talked about summer programs. They were very interested in the opportunity and to... Read More >

April 18-19

We arrived in Abu Dhabi after midnight on April 18. After getting through immigration and customs, we made it to our hotel and got to bed by 2 a.m. I woke up at 6 a.m. to get ready for meetings that morning. After gathering my materials we all met in the lobby and broke into teams. I went with another school to visit scholarship offices. The United Arab Emirates has several full... Read More >

April 16

We left early that morning and visited Kabanbi Batyra 4, a private school located in Astana. We gave presentations on our various schools and programs and then met with students interested in our schools. We were able to speak to the students for about 10 minutes before we had to jump on the bus and visit Public School #66, where we did the same presentations and individual meetings. The... Read More >

April 14

After a night flight, a layover in Istanbul, and then another flight, we arrived in Baku in the afternoon – enough time to recover to prepare for a long day the next day. On April 14, we visited The International School of Azerbaijan, where we had a mini-fair in conjunction with another 20 universities. Next we drove to Public School #23 and had a second min-fair with the group of... Read More >

April 11-12

We flew into Tibilisi, Georgia from Ankara on April 10 – arriving in the evening. On April 11, we visited Jijili School, the oldest private school in Tibilisi, and gave presentations to students, who were bright and very personable. We then drove to the School of Tomorrow, a small school located in the middle of a public park. Following that visit we gave presentations to students at the... Read More >

April 8 - 9, 2011: Ankara Turkey

  April 8, 2011 is the first official day of the recruiting trip. I am traveling with a group of other boarding schools from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., we have all joined Linden Boarding Schools Tour. Today we visited Bilkent International School, one of the top schools in Ankara. It is also associated with a university and founded by a wealthy doctor who valued education and... Read More >

April 5, 2011

 It is 6 a.m. Pacific time, and 3 a.m. Hawai‘i time. I am sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting for my connecting flight to Washington, D.C. From there I’ll fly to Munich, Germany and then on to Ankara, the capital of Turkey and the first stop in my spring 2011 admissions recruiting trip. I’ll also be traveling to: Ankara, Turkey Tbilisi, Georgia Baku, Azerbaijan Astana,... Read More >

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