Campus Activities

What do our students do when they are not in class, doing internships, volunteer work, or at campus events? Of course they spend much time at home doing homework and studying, but they also go to parties and on short trips with host families, do sports at local athletic fields, shop and tour around the city with friends, watch baseball games and movies and do all sorts of other activities, gaining valuable knowledge outside of the classroom.

As a first outing with their host family, many students visit the famous Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April, where the vast fields of red, white, yellow and purple flowers seem to paint a rainbow across the earth.

Each week, or twice a month many students attend the church-sponsored Talk Time, where they play games, sing songs, and enjoy talking freely with other young people.

In early May, our Edmonds and Shoreline students get together for a bowling tournament in which all students and teachers participate. In the summer, students from both campuses may take scuba diving lessons and diving certification tests. In December each year many of our students travel to Hawaii to join thousands of people from all over the world and run in the Honolulu Marathon. In preparation, they begin training in the summer quarter, going to the school gym and track before or after class to run, do weight training, road-running, etc.

When we have a three-day holiday weekend, some students travel to the nearest other major cities – Vancouver, Canada and Portland, Oregon. Other students stay in the Seattle area and visit the various festivals for each holiday.

Internships and Volunteer Opportunities

Internship venues planned for this year

• Hotels
  Executive Hotel Pacific (Seattle)
  Hilton Hawaiian Village (Honolulu – during winter vacation and winter quarter)
• Travel Agencies
  IACE Seattle
  IACE Las Vegas (during summer and winter vacation and winter quarter)
  Travel Factory (Los Angeles – during summer vacation)
• Retail/Customer Service
  Seattle Mariners Team Store in Safeco Field and in downtown Seattle.
• Sea-Tac International Airport
  Airport information desk and guidance.
• Theme Park/Restaurant Service
  Tillicum Village (Native American cultural entertainment facility)

Of the above venues, Executive Hotel Pacific, Seattle Mariners Team Store, and Tillicum Village internships begin from spring quarter.

Volunteer Activities

• Daycare Center
  HTC students can work at the child care facility at Shoreline Community College for several hours a week, caring for 1- through 4-year olds while observing how native English speakers acquire their language. It is definitely a precious learning experience.
• College Japanese classes
  Just as some of the local students assist in HTC English classes, some HTC students return the favor by assisting as conversation partners in the Japanese language classes at both Edmonds and Shoreline.

Home Stay Living

Each host family has its own unique lifestyle, customs, way of thinking, family structure, architectural style, etc., so the advisors caution students not to compare families over trivial matters. (On the other hand, making objective comparisons among different families is a good way to study American society.) At school we can hear some students share experiences like, “I went to Canada with my host family!”, “Over the holiday weekend my host family took me with them to visit relatives in California…”, “I stayed with my family in their mountain cabin…”, while other students may say “My host and I don’t go many places together, but she helps me with my homework and teaches me a lot in everyday activities.” And of course there are some students and families who must put more mutual effort into adjusting to one another’s schedules and personalities.