A RETURN TO TRAVEL

The 2020-21 school year was unlike any before it. At Christchurch School, we persevered. We celebrated our 100th school year together – bonded by the common experience of navigating a once-in-a-generation disruption to life as we knew it. Although we did not travel, we remained connected with the world through Zoom, WhatsApp, emails, and constant communication with people spread around the world. We celebrated the birth of Suman’s baby, pushed ahead on student projects, reimagined what we would do once we could travel again, etc.

This year, we’re resuming Global Education travel. Although COVID-19 continues to impact the world, we believe we can offer safe, powerful, and positive international experiences. Here are our plans:

Thanksgiving Break – Senegal Trip (12 day itinerary)

Spring Break – Guatemala Trip + Spanish Language Program (10 and 16 day itineraries)

April – Spanish Language Program to Spain (14 day itinerary)

May/June – India Trip (21 day itinerary)

For the coming school year, our students will experience Global Education in their classrooms, through activities we run on campus, and as part of our diverse global residential community.  Students will do research and complete independent projects in partnership with people living in India, Senegal, and Guatemala.  Teachers will incorporate first-hand experiences in the countries we visit in their classes.  People like Suman and Kekouta will help us remember that what is happening around us locally is also happening to people living in very different circumstances.  Our awareness of the international community and our connections with it will remain as active as ever.

Because we know that relationships are essential tools for everything we do in the Global Education space, we will nurture and maintain those relationships through these unsettling times.  Already this summer, faculty members have helped Kekouta fundraise for food safety measures in Niognani, his village, students have worked with Suman to think about how to protect Agora, his community, from the spread of COVID, and projects have begun to deepen our connections with Guatemala, India, and Senegal.  The safety and value of the trips we will run again in the future rely on our relationships and on maintaining an active understanding of what is going on across the world.  We will not forget it!

Here’s hoping that 2020-21 will turn out to be more normal than we expect.  But even if the situation in the world remains turbulent, the “normal” for Global Education is not going to change.  It will remain central to who we are as a school and we will continue to advance the program in the ways we always have.