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Privacy Notice
Greenheart International
Effective Date: 1/9/2019
This privacy notice describes how Greenheart International collects, uses, and discloses Personally Identifying Information (also known as “PII”) or Personal Data (collectively “Personal Information”) from and about users of Greenheart International websites. This privacy notice also applies to any associated paper forms. Please read this privacy notice before using Greenheart International websites or submitting any personal information.
These practices may be changed at any time. Changes will be posted along with the date of the change. You should review this privacy notice when you visit Greenheart International websites to make sure that you understand how Personal Information is collected, used, and disclosed.
The Personal Information you provide to us is only used to:
We may use non-Personal Information for additional reasons described in the remainder of this privacy notice.
If you identify yourself to us by sending us an email with questions or comments, we may retain your comments for future reference.
Greenheart collects Personal Information, which is information that on its own or in combination with other information may be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual. Examples include:
Greenheart International collects other information that relates to you but does not identify you. Examples include clickstream data and web-browsing information (such as the date and time you visit a website, whether you click on various advertisements or links and the search terms you enter when using a website), and information about your computer, device and internet connection, and geographic location.
We collect Personal Information from you in the following ways:
We may share information gathered by us from Greenheart International websites with governmental agencies or other companies assisting us in providing services to you. We may do so when:
Information provided under one of the four preceding bullet points will not be used by those receiving it for marketing purposes, unless specifically authorized by the user.
Third parties who provide webhosting services or other services that make possible the operation of Greenheart International websites and the services you request through the websites may have access to information that you provide us to the extent that those third parties require access to our databases to service the websites.
In connection with the sale or transfer of all or part of our assets, we reserve the right to transfer information we have obtained from or about you.
We are not responsible for any breach of security or for any actions of any third parties that receive information from us.
Greenheart International websites are hosted and maintained in the United States of America. Your Personal Information may be transmitted to countries outside of the European Economic Area, including the United States of America. You can obtain details of the mechanism under which your personal data is transferred outside the EU by contacting us. If your Personal Information is transferred outside the European Economic Area to third party service providers, we will take steps to ensure that your Personal Information receives the same level of protection as if it remained within the European Economic Area, including by entering into data transfer agreements using the European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses, or by relying on certification schemes such as the EU–US Privacy Shield.
Greenheart International websites use cookie and tracking technology to collect non-Personal Information. Our system also automatically gathers information about areas you visit on our websites, and about the links you select from within one of our websites to the other areas of the World Wide Web or elsewhere online. We use such information in the aggregate to understand how our users as a group use the services and resources provided on our websites. This way we know which areas of our websites are preferred by our users, which areas need improvement, and what technologies are being used so that we may continually improve our websites. Personal Information cannot be collected via cookies and other tracking technology, however, if you previously provided us with your Personal Information, cookies may be tied to such information. Aggregate cookie and tracking information may be shared with third parties but that aggregate information does not identify individual website users. Our web servers do not record visitor email addresses unless that information is submitted by the visitor. We may determine what technology is available through your browser to provide you with the most appropriate version of a web page. Greenheart International uses Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Gravity Forms, Yoast, Formstack, Calendly, GoOverseas, and other web traffic tracking tools.
Greenheart International websites contain links to other websites. These links are for your convenience. We do not control, endorse or review the privacy notices of other websites, which may be different than this privacy notice. You should review the privacy notice of other websites before choosing to disclose Personal Information.
Greenheart takes steps to secure your Personal Information. We exercise care in providing secure transmissions when we need to transfer your Personal Information from our servers. Our websites use secure server software encryption, which is indicated by https in the url of the website. Encryption is a common method of ensuring that information remains private. Greenheart International cannot guarantee or warrant that the information that you transmit to us, or any communications is completely secure.
Greenheart International only retains data for as long as necessary for the purposes indicated in this privacy notice or for such other period as may be permitted or required by law.
For children age 14-16, Greenheart International takes additional steps to protect their Personal Information. We do not intend to collect Personal Information from children aged 13 or younger. These additional steps include:
The marks Greenheart, Greenheart Heart Logo, and Sobresmesa are either registered or unregistered trademarks of Greenheart International. All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorized use is prohibited.
Certain jurisdictions provide their residents or citizens with certain rights about their Personal Information. These may include the right to request access to the data we hold about you, to obtain a copy of your Personal Information, to request that your Personal Information be erased, to correct inaccurate information, to ask us to restrict how we process your Personal Information, or to withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Information. Your individual rights will depend on your residency and citizenship.
Please contact us using the following information for more information about this privacy notice, to notify us of a concern or complaint, or to exercise any of the individual rights you may have.
Data Protection Officer
By mail: 742 N LaSalle Dr. Chicago, IL 60654 Suite 300, USA
By email: click here
By phone: +1 312-944-2544
Additionally, all marketing emails and newsletters from Greenheart International allow you to opt out of further correspondence. You can do so by clicking the link within the emails, which will guide you on how to opt-out.
by Sarah Tolman, F-1 High School Academic Program Coordinator
Luorongxin Yuan, also known as “Mini,” was only a ninth grader at her school in Zhenjiang, China, when she found out about the possibility of studying abroad. Eager to improve her English and experience an American high school, she chose to apply for a program here in the U.S. and was placed in Faribault, Minnesota.
“In China, I live in a place that’s pretty south, so it’s always warm and I had never seen snow in my whole life. That first year, I was really excited for the snow.”
Although the winters turned out to be a little bit colder and longer than she expected, Mini was charmed by this small Midwestern town and couldn’t bear to leave after one year. In order to stay, she applied for Greenheart’s F-1 High School Academic Program and is now beginning her third year at Bethlehem Academy in Faribault.
As a third-year international student, Mini is a seasoned veteran. She has gotten involved in many different activities at school, including basketball, track and multiple volunteer clubs. Her love for helping others and nature (in her words, she’s “nutty about the environment”) inspired her to get involved with the Greenheart Club. She’s helped out with watering trees at the local nature center, and worked with her school’s Key Club to do highway clean-ups and other volunteering activities for the community. But her involvement with Greenheart doesn’t end there! In the spring of 2014, Mini went on a Greenheart Trip to Hawaii with a group of international students. This, among other trips she has taken around the U.S., has been a highlight of her time here. The students explored Hawaii, learned to surf, and participated in volunteer activities like cleaning up beaches and working on a taro farm, which ended up turning into a mud fight!
Though it’s not as famous as Hawaii, California or New York, Mini is glad she ended up in Minnesota; she loves the quiet of living in a small town and has enjoyed the experience of getting to know her host family. In addition to having two host siblings and two foster siblings in her home, Mini’s host mom also runs a day-care! It can be chaotic with so many kids running around, Mini says, but she’s grown to like it.
When addressing the challenges she faced when starting school in the U.S., Mini says her first hurdle was the lack of a nap time in her school. “In China, there’s a really long lunch break, it’s almost two hours, so after lunch you can take a nap. Here you rush through everything, you have your lunch for twenty minutes… I would get so sleepy! That might be the toughest thing I encountered when I first got here.” As she got used to the fast-paced schedule, Mini started to recognize aspects of American high school that she really enjoyed. “The classroom [here] is more fun, you get to do more group activities, you don’t just, like, sit in your desks forever. I also really enjoy the clubs and the sports.”
Mini emphasizes that she has worked hard to improve her English and her accent. Though at first it took a long time to get through all of her homework, over time she got faster at reading and writing in English and now feels very comfortable. Of course the adjustment didn’t happen overnight, but Mini offers valuable advice for future international students about how to make the best of your time abroad:
“Just be open. Really there’s no boundaries set there already; It’s like you set a boundary by yourself by not talking to anyone, just because you think they all have their little circle you can’t break into. But it’s not true, you have to talk.”
Clearly, this strategy of being open and outgoing has resulted in a vibrant and exciting experience for Mini in Minnesota. She’s made friends through the different activities, sports and events she’s been involved in, and has truly immersed herself in the culture of the high school. This year, in addition to impatiently awaiting her senior prom, Mini looks forward to graduating from Bethlehem Academy with the rest of her peers. Her college visits and applications are already underway and she continues to work hard with the goal of getting accepted to her dream school, Johns Hopkins University. If that doesn’t work out, she’d be happy to go to the University of Minnesota too! She hopes to study medicine and also take classes in environmental studies, incorporating both her desire to become a doctor and her love for the environment.
According to Mini, studying abroad is a “life-changing experience!”