Last week SMG and ISE hosted our annual FAM Trip, which brings agents from all around the world to the Northeast U.S. for a week-long visit to our offices and a small selection of schools. We were glad to welcome agents from Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam.
On the first day of the conference, SMG hosted representatives from several of our partner schools in the U.S. and Canada to meet with agents individually at our headquarters in Bay Shore, NY. These meetings provided our agents a better understanding of each school’s philosophy and academic practices. We invited representatives from districts in Canada; including Lambton-Kent, Maple Ridge, Newfoundland and Labrador, River East Transcona, and Sea To Sky. We were also pleased to have representatives from a few of our New York schools, including:
Seton Catholic, The Sappo School, and Long Lake District, as well as representatives from the MacDduffie School in Massachusetts, Millinocket in Maine, and Lake Ridge Academy in Ohio.
Agents had 30-minute conferences with each of the school representatives to learn more about school amenities, extracurricular activities, graduation possibilities, and integration and inclusion efforts among the school communities. SMG finds that these meetings facilitate in building the relationships between the agents and schools. They also give agents firsthand insight into what a student can expect when attending these schools through SMG’s programs. The evening was concluded with a lovely dinner and cocktails at the Southward Ho Country Club.
The following day, we held another conference at our headquarters in Bay Shore. During this conference, our partners received in-depth presentations from SMG’s staff members on the wide variety of programs that Student Management group has to offer. Agents had the opportunity to learn more about our programs, meet individually with our program directors, and get to know the ISE and SMG staff whom they work with throughout the year. The relationships between our staff and agents were able to blossom beyond a typical e-mailing interaction, which was a pleasant experience that brought faces and personalities to the names we all work with day in and day out.
Finally, agents were taken on a road trip, guided by some of our SMG employees, where they were able to tour around 4 of our F-1 school options. Tours included Northwest Catholic High School in Connecticut, a PHP/DMDprivate school option, the MacDuffie School in Massachusetts – one of our premium boarding school options, Maynard High School, a selection from the F-1 Public ESI program, and the Presentation of Mary High School in Massachusetts – a second DMD/PHP private school option. The day concluded with a night exploring downtown Boston, which included a fun-filled duck boat tour around the city.
We were delighted to welcome our partners from around the world and this year’s spring Fam Trip was certainly one to remember. We want to thank each of our agents for participating and look forward to welcoming more of our valuable partners to our next Fam Trip conference in the fall.
James Mann
Marketing Manager
