1. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
High School Orientation
1 2 3
Description Approach & Activities
The first time you meet your Mentee is pivotal. It is
important to use your first few hours to develop trust
and mutual understanding.
Use this lesson to build rapport with your Mentee
while covering some fundamentals of the American
high school experience.
• Introduce yourself and the online orientation program
[10 minutes]
• Explain various themes in the Program Overview
• Share your background and get to know your Mentee
[30 minutes]
• Introduce yourself (upbringing, schools, job, etc.)
• Ask Mentee to give 1 minute self-introduction
• Share knowledge, or lack thereof of Mentee’s home
culture – use this as an opportunity to build trust
• Use Icebreakers and Conversation Starters to get to know
each other better
• Goal setting [15 minutes]
• Discuss Mentee’s goals and anxieties
• Offer guidance and perspective when appropriate; use
your own experiences from high school to help them see
the bigger picture
• Complete one of the Goal Setting Exercises
• Discuss homework and next meeting [5 minutes]
• Use the American pop culture and Exercises slides to
assign your mentee homework for the next lesson. Make
sure your mentee is 100% clear on expectations
• Talk through the best time to schedule future sessions,
ideally picking a regular time to schedule lessons
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, you should have a better
understanding of your Mentee’s goals and
apprehensions. Similarly, your Mentee should
understand your background (academic, professional,
and personal), the importance of this preparation, and
some key characteristics of high school in the U.S.
Materials
• Appendix slide: Program overview
• Appendix slide: Icebreakers and Conversation Starters
• Appendix slide: American pop culture
• Appendix slide: Goal setting exercises
Lesson 1: Introductions & Goal Setting

2. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
Role-play and
skills building
Knowledge
sharing
Integration
coaching
Materials: Program overview
Phase 1: Sessions 1-4
Goals
• Get to know your Mentee; build trust
• Provide student with understanding of
essential American cultural context
Content
• What is American culture? How is it
different?
• Etiquette and academic expectations
• Introduction to social life and
extracurriculars in U.S. academic system
• School- and location-specific module
Activities
• Icebreakers and trust building exercises
• Topic-based Q&A discussions
• Fun homework assignments on U.S. pop
culture, history, sports, fashion, and
many other aspects of U.S. culture
Goals
• Use role-play to prepare Mentee for
common social scenarios
• Build social confidence and initiative
Content
• Appropriate use of American social tools
(e.g., social media)
• Residential life and friend making
• Participation in the U.S. classroom
• Teamwork and extracurricular
engagement
Activities
• Role-play scenarios
• American slang quiz
• Guided introduction to U.S. social media
• Extemporaneous speaking exercises
Goals
• Use rapport to encourage social
engagement on campus
• Help Mentee reconcile culture shock
Content
• Week-to-week guidance and reflection
on early days in America
• On-campus activities and challenges
• Roadmap and goal development
• 1 session of Shearwater elective
curriculum (e.g., public speaking)
Activities
• Weekly reflection exercises
• On-campus challenges (e.g., make 5
comments in class this week)
• Social practice and role-play
Phase 2: Sessions 5-8 Phase 3: Sessions 9-12
APPENDIX
High School Orientation

3. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
Sample Icebreakers
• Describe yourself in 4 adjectives and explain why; build a conversation around it
• Word association games
• The Mentor and the Mentee switch off saying the first word that pops into their mind (e.g., tree  paper  news)
• Story telling: Mentor and Mentee switch off telling one sentence of a story together. This game is a great way to build
rapport by working together – try to make the story funny or exciting!
• Two truths and a lie (requires more established rapport – should not be used during first meeting)
• Each person tells three interesting facts about themselves. Two are true, but the third isn’t. The other person tries to
guess which of the three is false. The person sharing the facts should try to make it difficult to tell which one is false
Materials: Icebreakers and Conversation Starters
Conversation starters
• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• If your house was burning down, what three objects would you try to save?
• If you could talk to any one person now living, who would it be and why?
• Do you have a pet? If not, what sort of pet would you like?
• What is a gift you will never forget?
• What are your summer plans?
• Does your name have a special meaning or were you named after someone special?
• What was the best thing that happened to you this past week?
• If you had this week over again, what would you do differently?
• What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
• If you could have your dream job in 10 years, what would it be?
APPENDIX
High School Orientation

4. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
Resource Recommendations
Reading
• Harry Potter Series
• Game of Thrones Series
• Twilight Series
• Calvin & Hobbes comics
• Super hero comics
• Add your own suggestions
TV shows
• How I Met Your Mother
• Friends (somewhat outdated,
though)
• Glee
• Modern Family
• Friday Night Lights
• The Simpsons
• Saturday Night Live (SNL)
• The Daily Show & The Colbert
Report
• Gossip Girl
• Big Bang Theory
• Family Guy
• Add your own suggestions
Movies
• Lord of the Rings Series
• Harry Potter Series
• Marvel Super Hero Movies
• Rocky Series
• Pixar Animated Movies
• Shawshank Redemption
• Star Wars Series
• Star Trek Series
• Mean Girls
• Jurassic Park
• The Dark Knight
• Add your own suggestions
High School Orientation
Materials: American Pop Culture
APPENDIX

5. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
Approach & Activities
• Ask mentee to share his/her goals for study abroad in the United States
• Share some of your own goals during high school to help stimulate conversation
• Help mentee segment goals into academic, social, and extracurricular
• Discuss things that your mentee can do during the summer, along with this program, to prepare to achieve those goals
• Help your mentee begin to view you as a resource and partner in their study abroad experience
• Mentor: Take note of your Mentee’s goals. Knowing your Mentee’s goals can serve to motivate them better later on.
• Same as Standard activity, but ask your mentee to incorporate more structure
• What are goals for first semester? First year? Length of stay?
• Push mentee to think about specific steps they might take to achieve those goals [challenge them to drive the
conversation]
• Same as Intermediate, but challenge your mentee on some of their goals. Ask some of the following questions:
• Why is this goal important to you?
• If you achieve this goal, how will it help you with your long-term plans?
• Challenge your mentee to think critically about their goals for maximizing the study abroad experience – is there more
to learn than what they are expecting?
Materials: Goal setting exercise
Standard
Intermediate
Challenging
APPENDIX
High School Orientation
NOTE: Above all, work to help your mentee view the mentor-mentee relationship as a
resource in their pursuit of their goals.

6. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
High School Orientation
Select a homework assignment for your mentee
• Ask your Mentee to watch 30-60 minutes of a movie or TV show centered on American high school
(Glee, Friday Night Lights, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite, or another PG/PG-13 movie)
• See American pop culture slide for some recommendations
• Do not assign any tasks beyond them watching the TV show / movie. Simply ask your mentee to
come prepared to have a discussion about their impression
• Encourage them to recommend something for you to watch from their culture
• Same standard level: ask mentee to watch a video
• Ask Mentee to prepare to a 1-minute presentation on the video they watch. They should imagine
you are a friend from their home town who will not be studying in America – their goal is to help
you understand the differences between their culture and what they saw in the video.
• Same intermediate level, but ask mentee to prepare a 2-minute presentation
Exercises: Lesson 1
Standard
Intermediate
Challenging
APPENDIX

7. Shearwater
www.shearwaterintl.com
This presentation contains confidential and privileged information
Copyright © 2015 Shearwater International
High School Orientation
Lesson 1: Mentee Survey
APPENDIX
INTERNAL ONLY
1. What is 1 + 1? [900; 1; 0; 2]
2. How many times will you Skype with your mentor before arriving on campus?
[Answer = 8]
3. How many times will you Skype with your mentor after arriving on campus?
[Answer = 4]
Include note to mentees: you will receive real / harder questions next time.