A group of Hamburg Area High School students and staff recently toured Ireland, England and Wales.
Hamburg Gifted Education teacher Terri McCarthy, who is also Leo Club Adviser, Senior Class Adviser, Student Council Adviser, HEAT Team Member, and HAEF Committee Member, said there were 38 students and 12 adults. Six of the adults were HASD employees who were chaperones.
“It was the first international trip for HAHS in 17 years,” she said. “The purpose was to have student experience other cultures, visit other countries, and to see the actual locations and buildings that they’ve been reading about in their history books and the literature in their English classes.”
The trip was open to all students, mainly high school students so it was not a particular class or club.
“I started sharing the info at a meeting in February of 2015 and filled a bus of 50 in about two weeks. I couldn’t believe it,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy made the arrangements through Education First. She also went with Education First on a teacher trip to Finland and Switzerland last summer.
“I applied, was interviewed and accepted and got a scholarship. I also went to Rome with Education First in November for five days for a teacher training tour for teachers who are taking students internationally for the first time,” she said.
McCarthy said they went to so many places: Flew from Philadelphia to Shannon, Ireland and drove to Killarney.
“Saw the sights along the ring of Kerry, sheep dog demonstration, Bunratty Castle. A group went on jaunting cars and saw Ross Castle while others shopped. A group went to an Irish singing/dancing show one evening. We went to Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone, giving us the gift of gab, as the legend goes. We spent time in Dublin seeing where many of the famous authors and singers lived, wrote, and performed. We saw the book of Kells at Trinity College and visited St. Patrick’s and various museums.”
“We took a three and a half hour ferry ride (like a small cruise ship) from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales and saw Beaumaris Castle in Holyhead. We continued to visit Anne Hathaway’s cottage and visited Stratford on Avon where Shakespeare was born and saw his house. A group saw Mamma Mia at London Theatre and the others walked around London. We saw changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and then visited Windsor Castle. We were also there for the historic EU vote.”
What did the students learn from the experience?
“The students experienced travel with life lessons such as going through an airport, hanging onto their passports and belongings, getting along with strangers, visiting foreign countries and experiencing other cultures, along with all the history and beautiful sites we saw,” said McCarthy.
She already started planning the 2017 trip to Spain, France and Italy for July. Anyone is interested in 12 days of a fabulous experience, can contact McCarthy at termcc@hasdhawks.org.