Most recent Phillips Academy graduates probably do not expect to be back living in a high school dorm just a few months after commencement. But this year’s King’s Academy Junior Fellows are doing just that, in addition to acting as mentors for students in a boarding school in Manja, Jordan. Tantum Collins, Nayab Khan, Nancy Ann Little and Simone Salvo, all from the Class of 2008, have begun their work in the King’s Academy Gap Year Program, which combines an internship with scholarship and cultural exchange. The junior fellows serve as a bridge between students and faculty while serving as interns in administrative offices, coaches for co-curricular activities and residential assistants in dorms. Phillips Academy alumni have participated in the program since the school’s opening in 2007. King’s Academy is a co-educational private boarding school modeled after King Abdullah II’s experience at Deerfield Academy. It was two a.m. Jordan time when Collins called to talk about his experiences so far at King’s. “I have a strange sleep schedule,” he said. “Andover taught me that. Also, I would have called you yesterday, but the King stopped by.” The Academy seems to be a blend of East Coast prep school and traditional Jordanian life. According to Salvo, the campus and facilities have a very Western vibe, but at the same time, she has noticed administrative discrepancies between Jordan and home. Little noticed a difference in the pace of life, which she believes is characteristic of Jordanian society. “My first few assignments I completed hastily but thoroughly because I am so used to having a stack of work hurrying me along and others waiting on me for an answer. I was repeatedly reprimanded to ‘slow down and enjoy my work,’” she said. “I’ve also had difficulty adjusting to the keyboards here because everything is backwards to me,” she said. Khan is working with the school’s community service offices to help establish community outreach programs, in addition to coaching the girls volleyball team and taking on a role like a prefect in a freshman girls dorm. She anticipates serving as a school photographer and the Student Council Coordinator and has dedicated herself to several other community outreach programs in Jordan. “It was a little awkward in the beginning, and still is, actually, to realize that I have to have some semblance of professionalism and that I cannot just use the excuse ‘I’m a student here’ anymore,” Khan wrote in an email. The fellows have also applied other elements from their Andover experience to their work in Jordan. Collins is in the midst of starting up a student tour-guide program structured after Andover Ambassadors. “I pretty much copied everything [from Andover Ambassadors],” he said. Collins also credited his position as a prefect in America House for preparing him for dorm life at King’s and interacting with students. Although the responsibilities of the King’s Junior Fellows are many, the fellows have time to explore the rich region that surrounds them. The school is approximately half an hour away from Amman, Jordan’s capital, and is within easy access to various impressive historic sites. All fellows take Arabic, an aspect of the program they say they enjoy. Khan said, “I want to be on my Royal Jordanian flight going back to America in June and be able to completely converse with the people next to me in Arabic. That would absolutely be a dream come true. “ Khan hopes to learn from the King’s Academy students and benefit from the impressive Middle Eastern cultural, socioeconomic and political diversity of the school. Collins said, “[King’s is] well on its way to becoming a global leader in education.” The fellows agreed that a gap year program provides an opportunity to refresh one’s world perspective and figure out how one fits into a global setting. “When you go somewhere different you run into many new and exciting experiences. I have no idea what those are going to be yet in Jordan,” Collins said, “but they’ll be amazing.” Peter Drench, Chair of History and Social Science Department, said, “[King’s Academy] is really a blank slate,” referring to the newness of the school. Drench emphasized the resources that the King’s Junior Fellows provided King’s Academy, having come directly from the East Coast boarding school tradition.
