Customer Reviews

The New Global Student: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands on Tuition, and Get a Truly International Education

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved "The New Global Student" so much that I wanted to devour it in one sitting, but there was just too much information to process all at once. So I settled back and enjoyed it.

Maya Frost is a wise, witty guide with innovative ideas for global education. She explains her "Bold School" approach: WHY a substantial, immersive international experience before age 20 transforms students' brains as it creates global citizens. And she provides many ideas about HOW to create such an opportunity, safely and inexpensively. Practical discussions about gaining job experience, getting an education with little or no debt, and helping teens develop independence are spot on for the challenges that today's families face. This is a guide about living with passion and without fear as much as it is about traveling.

Frost shares her own experiences with her husband and four daughters living in several countries, but she also interviews many other exchange students and experts. What I love the most about "The New Global Student" is that Frost presents a smorgasbord of options and trusts the reader to develop a plan that is right for their family and personal situation. She talks about how to break free of traditional high schools, avoiding piling on AP classes, stressing about the SATs, and all that, but in the end she says, "A traditional four-by-four plan [4 years of high school, 4 years of college] could be the perfect choice as long as it's based on an understanding of all options available." That sums up this book's empowering, positive approach.

Recommended for all families, even (especially!) if you have not considered travel abroad. It's a great book to read when the kids are young, to open your eyes to a world of possibility. As someone who blindly climbed the academic ladder all the way to the top, nonstop from kindergarten to my Ph. D., I really wish I had taken a step off the path along the way to gain the independent view that Frost helps readers develop. Using this book for guidance, I plan to open those doors for my own daughter to walk through if she chooses.

I believe sometimes in our life we come across a certain book that completely and radically changes our perspective, and in this case, Maya Frost provided a fine piece of work that has altered my way of looking at not only studying abroad, but education and life in general. That education is not limited to the traditional classroom, it encompasses much more.

The famous quote, "don't let your schooling get in the way of your education," rings a bell here. Due to an increasingly competitive society, parents and students tend to respond by only pushing themselves, failing to recognize that there is more than option. That it's not a matter of life or death where exactly they attend college. And in her book "the new Global Student," Frost illustrates that traditional 4x4 (high school and college years) among students and parents has led to a wrong priority of values.

The current fad is to load up on extracurriculars, AP courses, club positions, SAT prep courses, and the list goes on. However, this is also a very alarmingtrend I believe and after reading "Global student" got the feeling that we are failing to realize that we students and the parents should together be seeking to live lives of meaning and happiness. Far too often, I see an increasingly number of students who are stressed at such tender and youthful ages, boring in terms of their personal and intellectual interests, failing to consider the meaning and purpose of life, and sadly thinking there are no other options.

Not only is this a real eye opener of traditional 4x4 thinking and the the immense benefits of someone who actually went abroad with her entire family (4 daughters and husband), it is an entertaining how to guide of how one can literally change their life for the better. If you are interested in living or studying abroad, I highly recommend this. Even better if you are just entering high school or are a parent of high school student(s) (this is also probably the best and only "college admissions" book you'll ever need).

"The New Global Student" is an entertaining and inspiring book. Maya Frost makes many excellent points about the merits of international experience for young people. She also does a great job reassuring parental fears about sending one's child overseas. I also liked how she discussed alternatives to the traditional 4 years in high school followed by 4 years at college. Many students would benefit from such options as homeschooling, dual enrollment, early college, and so on.

I did not care for Ms. Frost's negative attitude towards Advanced Placement courses, the SAT, elite universities, etc. I agree with her that all the pressure on kids today to go that route isn't healthy, and that certainly someone can be very successful without having done any of these things. But her strident tone made me wonder if it wasn't perhaps a case of "sour grapes". It's one thing to say, "hey, there is another path to consider" and quite another to pooh-pooh the traditional route as "old-school".

The other thing that bothered me about "The New Global Student" was its cluttered layout. I found it distracted from what Ms. Frost was trying to say.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book to high school/college students and their parents.

Every parent who worries about what they can and should do to prepare their children for the future should give The Global Student a read. Maya Frost has put together a truly thoughtful piece, providing providing great stories, good guidance, and a different view on how we really prepare our kids for what may come. Maya has gone with the tagline "Good-bye Old School, Hello Bold School," and when you read her story, you understand how appropriate the line is for her story and her recommendations.

In doing what many of us talk about but few of us dare actually do, Maya and her family have traveled down a path that really forced one to look at the educational choices we make and why we made those choices. And when you look at the the experiences and successes of her children, you have an even deeper appreciation for how difficult and rewarding the path was.

Maya is a fantastic storyteller, and the book really provides some great points for discussion, thought, and action. By refusing to accept the status quo, she has charted a course for those looking to break the norm. And she's woven a fantastic and captivating story in the process.

I found much of the information in this book very interesting, and it offered much solid, practical guidance on studying abroad and finding other paths through high school & college that are not as traditional. I definitely think it is worth the time & money to read.

The major criticism I had of the book is the authors assumption that a "global" child is the goal we are all/should all be aiming for, without much explanation as to why that is so much better for our children than a well-informed, balanced, but thoroughly American perspective. Perhaps given the title, her readers' agreement on that was a fair assumption on her part, but I don't happen to think that anything global or international is inherently better or worse than anything American, and I found myself quite tired of this assumption in the book. I want my children to understand how truly blessed they are, and to speak other languages, too, but I am not attempting to raise global citizens, I am attempting to raise American citizens that can connect with others around the globe. I didn't find any allowances for that in this book.

The second problem I had with the book is related to the first - the author throws her worldview into the book freely without ever stopping to consider that others with different worldviews may still be looking for non-traditional routes to college. Her pejorative use of "suburbia" turned me off, as did her completely out of place reference to health care in America not being as humane as health care in Argentina. She did not seem to have any respect for the fact (or any awareness of it, for that matter) that reasonable, thinking people might like Suburbia and find ways other than moving to another country to deal with the pressures in it, or that indeed they may not want their children to be so heavily influenced by other cultures before they fully understand or are able to defend their own.

All in all, though, I found the real information in this book outweighed the irritations. If you share her worldview, you will probably love it. If you happen to lean more conservative, you may be frustrated also, but it is still worth reading.

This is not only an informative "How-To" on do-it-yourself global schooling, it is also an inspiring story of a family, finding themselves somewhat dulled by the sameness and tameness of suburban American living, strike out for something more in life and find it. Thoughtful, articulate, with lots of practical tips for those who fear that public schools are doing little to prepare our kids for a flat-world future. Somewhat unwieldy from on organizational standpoint because it's really two ( or maybe three) books in one, but it's a fast read and a book you're likely to keep coming back to.

I inhaled this book, and now my daughter (a sophomore in high school) is doing the same. It is a book that dares to be different--dares you as a parent to stop capitulating to the timbre of conventional thinking when it comes to your children's education. It is a guide for you and your teen(s) to stop that treadmill of competition and initiate an authentic and global education. Inside are specific resources to igniting an imaginative, innovative, and creative fire of opportunity so that your child(ren) can possess a confident and solid footing for the future.

The key to an education in today's world is *global* diversity--genuine and authentic. Not a hollow ring of words and concepts being thrown around because they are in vogue. And not just two-week trips or summer jaunts to Europe to pad the educational resume. If your child wants a strong, solid perch on a phenomenal, exciting future, then going global optimally means going abroad for an educational year. Of course, that may not work for every child or household. Frost lays out a variety of attainable ways for your child to have an opportunity to expand her (or his) horizons, whether it is studying abroad in high school or in college, or selecting another option to nurture a global awakening and future. There is no one formula here. But there are plenty of eye-opening tools to assist your kid in taking charge of the high school and college years--without being intimidated by the needless, excoriating, and daunting competition of the conventional route.

This is not just rhetoric; this book contains specific and highly useful, concrete information and support for accomplishing adventurous goals. After reading it, I emailed the author with additional questions of my own, and her response was both swift and extremely helpful. My daughter is already initiating a commanding, fresh look at her high school education and seeing it through a bright-eyed, bold new lens.

Not every kid l-o-o-o-ves high school or flourishes in the 4X4 path (4 years of high school segueing into 4 years of college). Not everyone thrives on Spring Break, prom, cliques, trendy fashion, and the high school social scene. Maybe your child is a square peg--or a shooting star ready to take off and orbit away from the standard and into the transformative--around the globe. Some teens feel outright depressed on the boilerplate path. This book helps your child discover some alternative routes to achieving his or her goals while attaining a first-class education and college degree. And, believe it or not, they may even graduate early. From both. Additionally, this book is also a guide to studying abroad without breaking the bank. The author is economically wise. She illustrates that you don't need to be affluent with notable or powerful connections to get an international education.

Frost's writing style is engaging, entertaining, inspiring, and encouraging. Always encouraging. Interspersed throughout the book are narratives by many of the students who have designed a colossally impressive education--by applying a dose of daring and a sparkle of ingenuity.

The advice, the recommendations, and the wisdom of this book will boost your (kids and parents/ guardians) confidence, spirit, and outlook. I am not overrating this book--grab it now and score an intrepid and global future.

Fortune favors the bold -- Virgil
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it -- Goethe

Advice on the virtues of being bold goes back at least as far as the Romans. The New Global Student offers a new way to be bold: go global, "get a truly international education," and reap many benefits in the process. The particular approach which this book advocates is perhaps best summarized by the encouragement the author, Maya Frost, and her husband gave one of their daughters: to "go abroad in high school, consider alternatives when she returned, and pursue her passion in whatever way she chose" (p.83).

Living abroad for a year as a high school student is The New Global Student's boldest strategy: engaging in international learning on and beyond campus (pp.21-27) in a way that means "becoming knowledgeable of, connected to, and passionately engaged in a world without borders" (p.28). The rationale is that deep, broad experience living abroad as a student is far more valuable in the emerging global job market than mere travel (pp.33-38). Being challenged is good, and the rewards are great: the learning abroad experience engenders qualities that change students "from bland to bold": flexible, aware, curious, trustworthy, self-directed (pp.39-42). The study abroad experience is boldest when done to the max: go alone during high school and choose a country with a different native language and an unfamiliar culture (p.221).

This challenging path is, well, challenging: students should expect a process which is painful at first -- culture shock, homesickness, then eventually adaptation, and reverse shock upon returning to the States. But deep immersion in the living abroad experience results in a "brain-boosting learning opportunity" which promotes flexibility, language learning, personal growth and transformation (pp.167-77). The experience can also serve as a far superior `rite of passage' than what is commonly available to American high schoolers, leading to a much richer process of self-discovery and "sense of true independence" (pp.135-38).

Sounds great in theory, but scary in practice? The New Global Student offers an abundance of practical strategies for enabling a successful experience. The book recommends the Rotary Youth Exchange program in particular, but also recommends several other exchange programs as excellent (pp. 141-54). The section on what to expect (pp. 171-77) outlines the stages of culture shock and offers practical advice for dealing with the process. The "From Frantic to Fearless" section of the book offers a no-nonsense description of the main obstacle to moving forward: parental fear and ego ("fego"). Frost offers practical advice on how to `leggo that fego' in its various forms. The antidote: get calm, clear, and creative in kid mentoring (pp.51-60); move beyond helicopter/hot-house parenting by letting 'bold schoolers' explore options and learn on their terms (pp.60-69).

But won't a high school year abroad throw a monkey wrench into the college admissions process? Frost argues that the college preparation rat race is bad learning and bad strategy; instead of "mindlessly competing against others by doing the same things" they're doing, distinguish oneself by doing things differently, by focusing on mindfully maximizing a child's greatest gifts (pp. 29-31). But The New Global Student is not a primer on how to run the college admissions treadmill more cleverly; instead, it offers a series of "Bold School" alternatives to get started on a far bolder path. Some of Frost's suggestions cover still novel but relatively familiar ground, for instance endorsement of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program (pp.92-97), or finding better advanced learning opportunities than advanced placement (AP) courses, which have become too standardized, content-focused, and no longer live up to their name (pp. 85-92). Other suggestions for moving from "Old School" to "Bold School" are truly cutting edge. Do you think of community college courses as low-quality, "baby food" offerings? Bold high schoolers are using them instead as a "power shake" to jump start their college careers by choosing courses wisely, seeking mentors, and building a "bulletproof" transcript (pp.70-84). Does the term "GED" mean `last resort exam for losers' -- er, `low-achieving students' to you? Frost shows how to use the GED (General Education Examination) as a tool to help motivated students start college early; this strategy won't work for everyone, but it is a potentially brilliant strategy for some (pp.106-116). Tired of test preparation mania? You may be ready to view standardized test preparation as "largely irrelevant and mostly optional" (p.106). After all, over 830 four-year American colleges (including some of the most competitive ones) "do not use the SAT or ACT to admit substantial numbers of bachelor degree applicants", according to FairTest.org. Even though the SAT/ACT gauntlet is not avoidable for most elite colleges, downplaying the importance of test scores in favor of more relevant learning experiences is still a "Smart Move" (p.102). Does the process of achieving "A" grades seem more like a run-of-the-mill hoop-jumping exercise than a mark of substantive achievement to you? Then perhaps you and your child(ren) are ready to explore becoming a "new 'A' Student: Artful, Advanced, Atypical, Adventurous," "fully involved" in their education (pp.117-135).

Still sounds too bold for you? The New Global Student also offers substantive advice on less extreme but worthwhile alternatives such as a gap year before college or a study abroad experience during college. The first tip is to "lose the cruise mentality;" instead of expensive high-end study abroad packages, "go solo, go long, go deep" (pp.181-87). College students get more out of independently-arranged study abroad than from group packages (pp.187-99); with savvy timing, planning, and legwork, college students can duplicate study abroad packages services and save lots of money in the process (pp. 199-207). The book also offers valuable tips on choosing a country, a college, and finding contacts there in ~30 minutes (pp.220-27), and for getting full credit for study abroad (pp.210-19).

And for the families whose parents want to be part of the experience, The New Global Student offers a chapter on the "The Full Family Deal" (pp.232-70). This includes a "ten commandments" list for living abroad, describes how to focus on family happiness and children's development without getting caught up in worry, and explains how middle-class families may actually save money living abroad depending on circumstances. The chapter also includes the pros and cons of taking a sabbatical vs. becoming an expatriate. The following chapter is a "get-real guide" which describes many of the ups and downs a family is likely to encounter but which on balance offer "opportunities for rich, radical personal transformation" (pp.273-82).

Although The New Global Student has several other good features -- candid stories, "insider insights" from students who've been there, well-chosen quotes -- the book's approach is not without its shortcomings. One questionable assertion is that a shift in "focus from athletics to academics and arts will do a much better job of preparing...kids for the global future" (p. 44). Why does this have to be an either/or choice? How are learning teamwork, individual responsibility, dealing with competition and challenge not "relevant learning" experiences? The value of athletic participation is dismissed with minimal justification.

Another potential shortcoming is the book's argument that the benefits of grappling with the challenges of living abroad ("confidence, critical thinking, and compassion") are more important than the quality of the academic experience. While this may be true in many cases, and "do not expect a yearlong exchange to be focused on academics" (p. 147) may be good advice, why does it have to be either/or? Likewise, the solution to parental "fego" is not simply letting go (p.136), but balancing how to support growth and how to apply reasonable, ever-diminishing limits.

One can also question the premise of the book itself: is having a global experience an absolute necessity for getting ahead in the world of the future? The book makes a strong case that people who learn to live abroad comfortably will have many advantages over those who don't.

Interestingly, perhaps the best answer is that it doesn't matter, because much of The New Global Student's "Bold School" advice actually stands alone pretty well even if the "global" context is removed. The book echoes excellent advice I received many years ago for which I am very grateful: find your child's gratifying interests and talents and feed them (p.294). "Mindfully doing things different to maximize our greatest gifts" (p.31); the world needs skilled, innovative, compassionate, energized people (pp.42-47); focus on whether your adolescent's challenges are worthy ones (p.147); these and many of the book's other excellent ideas can make just as much sense with a global path as without one. In other words, "the new global student" is as much "the new intentional student" (p.293) as a global one. 'This is important because The New Global Student offers a road less traveled -- it is a path for many more to follow, but not for everyone. As one reviewer put it, The New Global Student is an "unorthodox guide" -- but then, boldness is itself rather unorthodox, isn't it?

The book ends with an epilogue which asserts that the two beliefs which shape our lives most detrimentally are that happiness and the good life lie in 1) "choosing a traditional or popular path" and 2) "acquiring and maintaining more and better stuff" (p.294). The book's parting advice is to take a different path: celebrate your freedom to do things differently, forge your own path, and "begin, be bold, and venture to be wise" (Horace - p.298). 'Here's hoping that the book sparks a new trend with hundreds of thousands of students and parents following its advice to find new, rewarding experiences by going global. Even then, though, there will be a need for many more paths to boldness, which the book's broader message also encompasses as illustrated by this excellent advice for people of all ages (also in the epilogue): "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive." -- Howard Thurman (p.293).

Does the idea of going global make you come alive? Go do it! Does something else make you come alive? Go do it! But whether you're planning to go global or simply to go boldly, read The New Global Student -- it will be excellent preparation for your journey.

This book is an excellent resource and inspiration. Most of us that have been in the school system have realized that it needs restructuring. Restructuring the monster that is our educational system is going to be a long process. This book is a way for us parents to look at alternatives before it's too late for our kids/students. I've actually purchased 8 copies of this book for friends with kids and even a couple of students.

I was really excited to read this book, but wish I could get my $10 and few hours of reading back. It's a perspective book. If you've never thought of life outside the box, it will seem new to you. It is filled mainly with stories of where Frost and her family went and their feelings. There are also a few stories from others who have traveled/lived internationally. The language in the book made me question if the author was trying to make people feel comfortable by swearing every now and then and mentioning how much they got to drink and party. Not necessary in the least! I also noticed plugs for other books and then rave reviews from the authors of these books on the first page. What I actually saw as pertinent information is easily found with a quick Google search or some other book with more "information". I had high hopes for this one, but a swing and a miss. I would not view as a "how-to-book."