Fostering a Balanced Experience for Our Students

Here at Leysin American School, we always encourage students to strive for an excellent school-life balance. While we emphasize academic achievement, we also encourage our students to try new things, engage in extracurricular activities, and develop their emotional and social skills. In turn, this develops innovative, compassionate, and responsible citizens of the world that are well-adjusted and ready to enter the world after graduating. 

In addition to developing young people’s skills, the extracurricular activities and travel opportunities we offer allow them to take full advantage of their beautiful surroundings here in Switzerland and relax after working hard at school during the day. Here at LAS, students can choose from a wide variety of outdoor pursuits, sports, creative activities, travel opportunities, and social events to make the most of their boarding school experience. These activities give students resilience and allow them to socialize with our very international student body. Trying something new, failing, and succeeding all build character among our students and enable them to bond through learning something new. These vital life lessons are skills that young people take with them throughout their lives as they learn how to negotiate, bounce back, and interact with others.

In addition to providing students with social skills, trying activities outside of our curriculum allows young people to try new hobbies and interests. We have a wide range of activities available to students, from yoga and baking to golf and parapenting. Not to mention during the winter months, our students go skiing or snowboarding every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Many of our students are beginners who enjoy learning a new skill and building their confidence in this area. Students at LAS can also enjoy our incredibly varied arts program and become involved in activities such as the school theater production, art classes, and music. Aside from giving students an edge on their university applications, activities like these allow students to have the best possible experience in our small Swiss village and develop the skills they need to become well-rounded young adults.

Here at Leysin American School we do not focus solely on academics. Though we place a great emphasis on academic achievement, we believe that happy and well-rounded students push themselves out of their comfort zone, try new things, and interact with people from all over the world. We see proof of this in our alumni who, when attending alumni events or visiting LAS decades after graduating, reflect on their happy memories here and all the new skills they learned after being encouraged to try new things and meet new people. With our new and returning students arriving in Leysin this month, we are really excited to welcome everyone back and see what new skills they develop and all the friends they make!