Leysin American School Case Study

Fred and Sigrid Ott founded Leysin American School, also known as LAS, in 1961. It is a co-educational, independent boarding school focused on university preparation for grades eight through twelve, as well as optional Posy Graduate and 13th grades. It is located the town of Leysin, in the part of Switzerland called Canton Vaud. Its official language is French. Leysin is a very popular place for tourists during wintertime since there is a great ski resort. Also, Leysin is very international. There is Leysin American School as well as the Kumon Leysin Academy, a Japanese boarding school, and the Swiss Hotel Management School, which has people from many different counties as well. Our international school is home to students from over sixty
In the survey, there was a question “Do you consider yourself an international student?” 49 out of 53, which is about 92% of all participants, do. Four people have answered that they do not consider themselves international, all of who were in LAS for less than a year, which might be a major factor. Internationalism may be determined by many qualities. Therefore, there was the question in the survey, that states, “Why do you consider yourself an international student?” with five answers provided: cultural background, language background, more than one nationality, multicultural parents, studying abroad; and an optional answer. Students were supposed to circle an answer or a several answers that they think mostly describes their ‘internationalism’. Most of people answered that studying abroad makes them feel international, 27 out of 75 answers, which is 36% of all responses. 14 out of 75, which is 18.6%, answered that they are international because of the language background. Multilingualism is very popular in this school, since people come form different countries with different languages. And also because people gain language skills by just being surrounded by the different language environment. The main question of the project was should Leysin American School (LAS) in Switzerland be renamed into Leysin International School (LIS). 18 people have voted for LAS, and 35 for LIS, twice as more. However, since the name of the school, at this moment, is Leysin American School, and not Leysin International School, my survey specifically looked at the answers from native English speakers. It was very interesting that six out of seven native English speaking students have voted for LIS, which might be a result of the international environment like people that are