Seventh-grade student, Sabien Cain, was invited to China after a Nanning Chinese Government Athletic Official saw a video of Sabien playing basketball. Wanting to experience American culture, the athletic official reached out to Sabien’s parents to see if he would be willing to host his own basketball camp in Nanning, China.
You might assume that travelling overseas to run a basketball camp would be a lot to handle for a 13-year-old surrounded by a completely different culture. That was not the case for Sabien, who credits a lot of his comfortability to his education at Orchard.
“I think my Orchard education helped because we study lots of different cultures in social studies, so I understood I needed to learn what the Chinese do,” Sabien said. “I asked my translator whether I should do something so I did not do anything inappropriate.”
This type of social awareness is instilled in every Orchard student from preschool to eighth grade. The mission is to develop and educate the whole child through progressive education, with diversity and education for a global society being a key pillar of this mission. Sabien’s exposure to studying multiple perspectives while fostering personal integrity and respect for self, others and the world around us is exactly why Sabien’s mother wanted him at The Orchard School.
“We wanted Sabien to be exposed to as much cultural diversity as possible,” Vivian Cain said. “And I think the Orchard experience has been positive for Sabien regarding his social, emotional and academic growth. Orchard’s progressive education and philosophy with nature-inspired learning is definitely aligned with his previous child-centered educational experience, and that was exactly what we were looking for to continue his education.”
Sabien spent three and half weeks in China with his mother. Vivian is the founder and executive director at Maria Montessori International Academy in the Indianapolis area, so she was able to teach Montessori Biome Outdoor Education to Chinese students at Golden Beach in Haung Dao, China, while Sabien worked with kids on the court ranging in age from nine years old to 16.
“I taught them different basketball moves like layups, three pointers, floaters, dribbling, passing and free throws, and how to play the game of basketball,” Sabien said. “Some kids had played basketball, but most had not.”
When asked if his overall goal was to coach basketball some day, he answered without missing a beat.
“I want to play in the NBA!” Sabien said.
This confidence will always be encouraged while Sabien is attending Orchard. He is rather serious about his dream and has already made huge moves in the basketball world. On top of playing for the Orchard Owls, he’s heavily involved in AAU basketball, playing for multiple teams that have provided the opportunity to compete in Texas, Michigan, Florida, Las Vegas, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
One of Sabien’s biggest breaks was when the North Coast Blue Chips, a team based in Akron, Ohio, that had LeBron James’ son on the roster, asked him to join their team.
“LeBron James was around the practices and games, and he was nice,” Sabien said. “His voice is very deep!”
Currently, Sabien plays for Super Friends — a team ranked number two in the country!
The Chinese students were very fortunate and excited to learn from Sabien, who also learned a lot about their culture.
“I learned that Chinese students attend school for about 10 to 12 hours a day with little time for extra fun,” he said. “My Chinese friends are very interested in American education and want (to) have more free time to explore their interests.”
