Nineteen students from Annandale High School will further their studies by traveling the world this summer.
The students are headed to Mexico, Ghana, Seoul, and a lot more countries, thanks to more than $75,000 in scholarships from the Center for International Education and Exchange. Each student will travel for three or four weeks.
Saul Soriano, 16, is headed to Mallorca, Spain, to study marine biology, something he says he’s always been interested in. “Working on the beach, or with sea animals — that’s one of my top career choices right now,” he says. He’ll work in university laboratories and in the field.
Madison Mueller, 16, is going to Rome to study Italian art, music, and culture. “I’ve always been into art, and my mom said that Italy is a beautiful place, and Rome would be amazing to visit.” There will be field trips to museums and churches, as well as a day trip to Florence. She says she’s looking forward to “being able to learn in a different classroom, [and] see what the culture is like.”
Yeluma Tatinyuy, 17, is headed for Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, to study leadership and service. She says she’s not sure what career path she wants to follow yet, but she’s eager to build on what she’s already learned about “the culture, how it’s different than the United States.”
Mamby Traore, 18, “didn’t really want to do anything too major for this summer,” but after his parents convinced him to take a look at the offerings, he’s headed to Ghana for a leadership program involving children. He says he wants to be a teacher: “I’ve always been interested in working with children. I like interacting with them. And so it caught my eye.”
An Enriching Experience
Laura Wells is the coordinator for Annandale’s Advancement Via Individual Determination program, which helps students get into and succeed in college. She says she always encourages students to apply for summer academic and volunteer programs — they’re great enrichment opportunities, and the process of applying for them helps students prepare for filling out college applications.
And when the students get to their destinations, she says, they learn a lot more. “That experience of having to navigate a new place on your own is similar to the experience of going to college. So for that reason, I always push my students to apply to summer opportunities.”
Some teachers encouraged their students to apply for the program; some made it a part of classwork.
Making it Affordable
The scholarships from the nonprofit CIEE are what makes it possible for a lot of these students to make the trip. “The scholarship helped out a lot because I don’t think my family would be able to fund it,” Tatinyuy says.
Meredith Hedrick, the chair of the school’s English for Teachers of Other Languages department, said there’s no shortage of opportunities for high school kids to study abroad, but the price tag can run up to $4,000.
The nonprofit CIEE runs a scholarship program funded by an anonymous donor, and the school was able to partner with the nonprofit to offer an affordable way to broaden students’ worlds. Families still have to fund the student’s airfare, but most of the rest of the experience is covered.
This is the first year Annandale has participated in the program. “It’s like Lewis and Clark. They’re exploring the world, and they don’t know how it’s going to be, but we’re going to have great results at the end,” Hedrick says.
Featured image courtesy Fairfax County Public Schools
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