Fort Worth Country Day recognized for global outreach with Sister Cities awards

Fort Worth Country Day School made history and came away with top honors at the recent Fort Worth Sister Cities International 2019 annual meeting at the Fort Worth Club. The school took two of the three awards for exceptional efforts in enriching the local community on cultural affairs, and for globally promoting the City of Fort Worth.

Country Day was presented with the Eisenhower Award for Organizational Involvement. Also, Andre’anne Annis, an upper-level French teacher at the school, was named Volunteer of the Year.

Country Day is the first independent school to receive the Eisenhower Award since its creation in 2001.

The Eisenhower Award was presented to Country Day in recognition of its Center for International Studies, a program that works closely with Sister Cities throughout the year to provide students with international education. These initiatives include overseas summer expeditions, exchange and hosting opportunities, cultural programs and international professional development.

“The Center for International Studies and our FWCD students are very connected to Sister Cities through the International Youth Exchange Program, which provides opportunities for them to develop deeper cross-cultural mindsets and understanding,” Country Day Head of School Eric Lombardi said. “We are very excited and thankful to have received the Eisenhower honor and to be part of a city that has won Sister City Organization of the Year nine times.”

This year, Country Day has had 16 students accepted to travel on youth delegations and service-learning programs to countries such as Italy, Japan, Germany, Cambodia and China.

Annis has participated as a delegation leader on various Sister Cities trips and hosted visitors to Fort Worth. She also served as a translator for a French delegation in Nîmes, France, in 2018. Her work was instrumental in Nîmes being named Fort Worth’s ninth Sister City.

“The purpose of Fort Worth Country Day is to inspire the passion to learn, the courage to lead, and the commitment to serve,” Annis said. “What an honor and joy to build relationships, to learn about other cultures, to lead students in becoming great ambassadors of our city, and to serve as host, translator, educator and ambassador. The lens through which I view the world continues to be enriched, merci.”

Annis is the second Country Day faculty member to earn this award. Tara Forrest, a middle school history teacher, also won in 2015 and has since retired.

“Andréanne works incredibly hard for our students. She has proven to not only be an asset to FWCD, but also to all of Fort Worth through her work as a delegation leader with Fort Worth Sister Cities,” Center for International Studies Director Stephen Blan said.

“It’s an honor for FWCD and the Center to be recognized as well. Sister Cities is easy to promote among our students because of the unique opportunities the organization offers to young people in Fort Worth. Hosting and traveling with Sister Cities has proven to be confidence-building and life-changing for the students who participate in their programs.”