Tom and Diane Massey

Our daughter Alexis introduced us to THINK Global School, and, with a lot of parental anxiety, we let her attend. During her first summer back home a friend proclaimed she had matured five years. Alexis had developed a maturity which shows particularly in moments of ambiguity, a graceful perspective, a refined self-confidence, and the ability to set a direction and go. Alexis came of age at THINK Global School while hiking in the Himalayas, spending time with orphans in Tanzania, feeling the wind in her face from the doorway of an Indian train, and through finding a life-changing book in a science outpost in the Costa Rican rainforest. The magic of THINK Global School lies in its truly diverse group of cohorts: students hailing from over 20 countries are immersed in the joys -and stresses- of an ever-changing environment.  At the center of Alexis’s experience are those extraordinary moments, quiet conversations, and shows of support shared with friends that have made a profound and lasting impact on her life. It's impossible to ignore history, geopolitics, and life at the magnitude that THINK Global School lives it.  Alexis is an American, and one of her roommates and best friends comes from Hanoi, Vietnam. Alexis learned through the eyes of a friend a deeply personal perspective on her country, which simply cannot be gotten from a book. In the summer of 2014, one student went home to Palestine just before Israel started bombing Gaza. A couple months later, at the start of the fall semester, a wonderfully energetic student was admitted from Israel.  Another student, from Russia, came at the time when his homeland entered Crimea.  And the year before Alexis joined the school, THINK Global School was in Boston when the marathon bombing occurred.  The students and staff came together and supported each other through the shock and grief of that day’s events.  The story of this time that sticks with me the most was how the student from Afghanistan helped console and put perspective on the day.  By just living in this tight-knit global community of exceptionally close friends, Alexis absorbed the world and it became extremely personal.

Tom and Diane Massey