[quote]By Prashant Shankar
Online Writer
Photos and video by Kristen DiGiorgio[/quote]

Students will soon have the opportunity to go on educational tours around the world, to countries like Ireland and Italy, for the purpose of learning about other places and cultures. Students will be able to see sites ranging from the Parthenon, Vatican City, Spanish festivals, and more. The new program is led by English teacher Kristen DiGiorgio, and is set to take take flight later this year.

“Right now, the philosophy behind it is educational travel,” group leader for Educational Tours Kristen Digiorgio said. “My goal is to open up global education for all students and give them the opportunity to learn some things while they travel.”

While the idea is new to Metea, it isn’t new to high school. In fact, DiGiorgio adapted the idea from her previous job at Bradley Bourbonnais High School.

“This is my first year here at Metea, so at my previous job at Bradley Bourbonnais High School, I was invited by one of the group leaders about six years ago, and they were leading a tour to England and Ireland and Wales, and I got to be a chaperone in that tour,” DiGiorgio said. “Then that teacher became an administrator, so that [gave] me the opportunity to step in and take over the program, and over there, it was the same philosophy, ‘Hey, let’s get students exposed to other countries and global education.’”

DiGiorgio, who is still working on a name for the program, plans to meet and organize a trip for students at Metea.

“So we haven’t actually developed a name for it yet at Metea, and that’s going to be what a team of teachers is going to meet [for] and come up with,” DiGiorgio said. “The whole program is in a very premature stage, but it has been approved and supported by administration.”

The program is similar to the foreign language department’s efforts to bring students to countries like Costa Rica, but according to DiGiorgio, the two have some slight differences, as DiGiorgio aims to build a global community via learning other cultures.

“The difference between what we’re going to do and what foreign language does is foreign language often does language immersion programs, which is really awesome and fits with their philosophy of teaching,” DiGiorgio said. “But, for example, if we’re in Greece or Italy, which are sites that you normally only see in a textbook, now you actually get to touch them, and take pictures with them, and be in what would be a textbook picture.”

Along with sites, students also learn about the culture, atmosphere, and lifestyle of the natives in the country.

“We learn a lot about architecture, different cultures, we learn about different foods and what it’s like to order a typical meal in that country, and typical customs,” DiGiorgio said. “For example, we were in Spain one year and went to a Flamenco Dancing Show. It’s just to gain the experience of different cultures out there, but also their daily lives.”

Besides providing a unique experience, educational travel benefits students in numerous ways. According to a study by Explorica, students who participate in educational travel are almost twice as likely to earn a college degree or higher than students who don’t, and have a higher average GPA average than students who don’t travel. DiGiorgio wants to make it clear that when the program starts up, students won’t simply be turned away.

“There will be no discrimination of students and no discrimination of grade,” DiGiorgio said.  “Some schools do that, where they say ‘no freshmen,’ but for me, it’s all about building a global community, and I really want to gain as much exposure as possible to Metea.”

While the program is still in development, it’s well received early on, and generating interest among students.

“I definitely would be [interested],” junior Nikki Koulos said. “I think it’s very important for students to be able to go outside their comfort zone and see those sights in person. It helps them learn a lot more versus seeing it in a textbook. Also, being able to go to somewhere like Greece would be really fun, and [it’d be] at a decent affordable price because you’ll being with other people, which helps balance out the money.”

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