New School-Sponsored Trips to Greece and China

After a three-year absence of global study trips, the Upper School is rebooting the program with trips to China and Greece. Students in China will be immersing themselves in Chinese language and culture throughout Shanghai, Jingdezhen, and Hefei. Likewise, students in Greece will be learning about sustainable culture in Athens and Crete. There will also be a middle school trip to the Channel Islands to learn about Marine Ecology. 

These trips were originally planned for 2020 but were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. History Teacher and Global Studies Coordinator Kyong Pak stated, “We decided, let’s go back to what was supposed to run in 2020 and try to revive….. those trips back.”

The majority of students are excited for these trips, but some are turned away by the current global study’s phone policy. During their time abroad, students will not be able to access their phones because teachers believe that they will be better immersed in their trip without them. Mandarin Teacher and China Trip Leader Kathy Yang said “​​I want to make sure that my students can fully engage on this trip rather than [do] things you can do at home, for example, like browsing social media or talking to your friends through text messages.” 

However, this policy has turned some students away from the program. Not because they want to continuously check their social media apps, but because of a fear of safety and want to directly contact their families. “I was really excited to go on a trip with my classmates, but once my parents heard about the phone policy, they told me I wasn’t able to go. Which I understand because they are afraid for my safety” one anonymous student said. Yang recognized these concerns and offered a solution, saying “We’re working on modifying the phone policy so students will still have a chance to talk to their family and friends if they need to.”

The pandemic has presented many challenges for the global study trips this year in terms of risk management. Although COVID-19 is a challenge, there are also several other factors such as geopolitical tension and climate crises too. Pak states: “The challenge is trying to broaden our student experience and become sort of globalists and global citizens, but do it in a way that’s safe and that we have really good risk assessment around each trip.” 

As inflation has impacted the costs of airfare and lodging, the prices for these global trips have risen. Yang says “Another challenge that [the School] encounters [is that] we want to make this trip affordable for everybody. It’s an equity issue. So we want to make sure everybody who wants to participate has the chance to participate.” The price of the China trip currently ranges from $5600-$5900 while the Greece trip is $4300-$4700. There are grants available, but priority is given to those who already receive financial assistance for tuition. However, families that don’t receive financial assistance still qualify for these grants. 

With high prices and with both trips being capped at 15-20 students, not all students at the School are able to go on these study travel programs. There are many ways to make study travel less expensive as Pak says that trips can also be focused domestically. She stated, “Study travel doesn’t just mean going to a far-flung country.” As the School is reviving these global study trips, it raises the question brought up by Pak: “How do we make it more accessible to all students?”