“It was good to see how other cultures live their lives and how they’re food styles are different and how their conversations are kinda different,” senior Annie Grealish said.
Very few people are lucky enough to get to travel the world. For the people that are, it is unlikely that they get to do this often, especially if they’re high school students. These students are faced with a tough decision when it comes to traveling: should I go with the school or on a trip outside of school?
There are a lot of factors that go into this decision. There are school work, days away, features, and experiences to consider. While neither one is a bad choice, both of the options have different benefits.
“The benefit of going with the school is that you probably get out of school, although that can also be a drawback because then you miss a lot of work,” teacher Carla Hedstrom said. “Going with it not on a school trip you go in the summer.”
Hedstrom has been taking students on trips for over 20 years outside of school, and likes the idea of it not being about a specific language.
“These trips that we take aren’t necessarily tied to any specific language so anybody that’s interested can go,” Hedstrom said.
Senior Chloe Swoboda said about her trip experience. Swoboda went on a trip outside of school through the EF tour company.
“The EF tour still had education in it but it was still more of a vacation,” Swoboda said.
While these are both great benefits of going on trips outside of school, school trips have benefits that the other trips don’t necessarily offer. When Hastings High takes students on foreign language trips, they stay with a host family for a large portion of their stay. This helps students become more experienced with the language.
Also, school trips are more likely to have people that you already know on them. Sometimes when people go on trips outside of school they don’t know anyone before they leave.
No matter how people decide to travel, it is an enriching experience. Learning about new cultures, places, and people help others understand others.
“Travel. Travel, travel, travel. You need to travel. You need to see the world,” Hedstrom said.
