Students who want a more worldly education next year need to register soon for the spring break 2015 trip to London, Paris, and Rome.
“I think it’s a good thing for students to see other cultures, and you get to see the history and the art and everything else like that. It’s really more educational than you think. You just don’t [realize] that you’re learning,” said Susan McBride, science teacher, who started offering the spring break trip every other year to students in 1990 due to her love of traveling.
Offered to incoming freshmen through seniors, their families, and teachers, this trip provides the opportunity to experience Europe from March 19-27, 2015. Teachers and adults are not required to be chaperones on the trip.
Registration for the trip is being accepted until late August to early September. The price of the trip is currently $3,928. The price of the trip will rise starting after July 1.
McBride does not plan these trips for any specific class offered at the high school, but simply for students who want to travel the world. She uses the travel company ACIS, whose goal is to provide students an educational experience and provides objectives for the specific destinations, according to McBride. However, this is not the first company McBride has used, although it is her favorite.
“[ACIS] has hundreds of trips, and you can choose the trip that you like and that best fits for what you think you want to do or what the group wants to do. They have options [for different types of activities,] we even have a little bit of free time here and there,” McBride said. “We usually have opportunities where you can go somewhere else. It will cost extra money, but it’s an option the company provides. It’s not something you have to do.”
Some of the alternative activities include a half day trip to Versailles, including the gardens of Versailles, and/or an extra night in Italy. Over the last 24 years, McBride has led travel groups for students to Italy, Spain, France, Greece, and England, and she has traveled to Italy, her favorite place, ten of those times.
“I love to travel. What’s fun is I might’ve gone to Italy ten times, but if I take different people with me, I see something different every time and [from] their point of view,” McBride said.
What McBride is looking forward to most on the trip is getting to know the people who she does not know, she said. As of the date of publication, there are eight students signed up for the trip, and McBride is hoping at least twelve will register. Even if there are not twelve students, she is still planning on going on the trip with the students who are interested. McBride said she has traveled over spring break with only one student one time because of the student’s interest to travel, even though nobody else signed up.
“If they really want to go, I’ll go,” McBride said. “I’ll find a way to go.”
Due to her family heritage and her interest in traveling, Amanda Fiddler, sophomore, will be attending the spring break trip next year and is looking forward to what the trip has to offer.
“I have this strong desire to go places and see things. [These] are all places I have wanted to visit. The first and last time I went to Paris, my family member got sick so I couldn’t appreciate it. I’m Italian, so I want to see where my grandparents came from. I’ve always wanted to go to London and be able to experience the culture and see where all of the classic authors lived,” Fiddler said.
Fiddler is also looking forward to meeting new people. On certain trips, the LZHS student group travels along with different student groups from other schools. McBride tries to plan the trip with her brother, who is also a teacher, if their schools’ breaks lines up.
“It has gotten to the point where the kids still are in touch with each other. This is what I like best because when you do go with different groups, they [can become] friends for life sometimes,” McBride said.
Even though Fiddler is excited to meet new people, out of everything, she is most excited to experience the different cultures throughout Europe, and that aspect of the trip is what McBride wants students to experience and connect to the most.
“[What I want students to get out of this trip is] that cultures are different, but they are neither good nor bad, just different. I just hope they get a lot out of the history and the art as well because it’s way past how old something is here in the United States,” McBride said. “I hope they get a joy out of traveling more than anything. You need to see the world. You need to see what’s beyond this area or this country. You get a feel and a better appreciation of things.”