Global Studies Launches Four Excursions for 2019

Starting with the annual trips to Nicaragua hosted by Señor Nuñez and the Latin students’ trip to Rome, Prep has been drastically expanding their global studies opportunities.  Early this school year, Prep announced four new global studies trips to Arizona, Cuba, France, and China. With the upcoming construction of the Bachmann Collaboration Building–which will house STEAM, global studies, and leadership–there are a lot of exciting opportunities available to Prep students.

The Global Studies Initiative started two years ago with Ms. Herskind as the global studies coordinator.  She says, “The first year, the goal was to basically kind of figure out what we’re doing at Prep that’s global-studies-oriented in the curriculum and then start building on what we want to be doing.”

There a lot of ideas as for how the new space in the Bachmann Collaboration Building will be used for the Global Studies Initiative. One important tool that the new building will provide is labs with software and equipments for activities such as global mapping and spatial mapping.  Prep students will be able to use labs for skyping and conferences with people abroad such as the French students with Peace Corp workers in Cameroon and Spanish students with St. Mary’s school in Nicaragua. In addition to this new software and equipment, Prep will likely be bringing in speakers who not only deal with global studies, but can also cross over into STEAM or leadership initiatives.

In addition to all these ideas for the new building, Ms. Herskind has also been collaborating with Poly, and hopes to create a Poly-Prep global consortium.  Regarding both the global studies initiative and this year’s upcoming trips, Herskind says, “my goal is to continue to create relationships with other schools for our students to realize that they’re part of a global sort of context.”

This goal will hopefully make its way into this year’s four global studies trips.  The planning has been going on for quite some time, with the coordinating teachers, Ms. Lee (Arizona), Mr. Rodriguez (Cuba), Dr. Van Arsdall (France), and Mr. Fritz (China), coming up with the ideas for the trips well over a year ago.  One notable part about these trips is how they all have a different focus. The trip to Arizona is science-oriented, the trip to Cuba centers around art, the trip to France is about language and culture, and the trip to China is about development and identity.  Such variety allows all students of all interests to attend any one of the trips.

In the future, Prep will likely be doing four to five trips a year.  Ms. Herskind says that there are already teachers approaching her with ideas for trips such as a trip to London for a drama tour, an archaeological dig, or a trip to Greece. There truly is no lack of exciting adventures in Prep’s future.  Herskind reflects, “We’re also hoping that not only is this going to help our Prep students become more globally aware and to become better global citizens, we’re also hoping that the faculty will want to continue to engage in this and become great leaders and great global citizens themselves.”

Despite the exciting plans that Prep has for global studies in the future, everyone is currently focused on making this year’s trips the best they can be.  Stay tuned to read more about this year’s four trips!