The Academy of Global Studies program at CdM strives to make its members “…knowledgeable, engaged, and competitive global citizens.” As apart of this mission, the organization offers an international trip for their students to “… give students an opportunity to actually see and experience other cultures in the world around us,” according to Mr. Captan, the freshman AP Human Geography teacher, a required course for the pathway. This President’s Day Week, the annual trip took students to the wonders of France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Keeping true to the water polo coach’s (Captan) statement that “… it’s a very fast-paced trip.” The twelve day trip brought AGS members 5,656 miles across the globe to their first stop in Paris, France. After three days in Paris, where students visited landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Arch De Triumph, and the Louvre, they traveled another 222 kilometers (138 miles) to Normandy to visit the D-day museum and honor fallen soldiers at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Their next stop found them in St. Malo, France to look upon the Church of St. Vincent, the Tomb of Jacques Cartier, and the Mont-St-Michel monastery. On their way to Lausanne, Switzerland they took a stop in Geneva to stop by the Red Cross and Red Crescent museum and CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research. While in Lausanne, the students took a little detour to Montreux, saw the Chateau de Chillon, and Mt. Pilatus. Stopping in Zermatt to visit the Matterhorn, the members found their way to their final destination in Milan, Italy. During their last day of travel, the students did some sightseeing, saw DaVinci’s “The Last Supper”, walked the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and the Duomo cathedral.

Peyton Vovan, an AGS member who attended the trip, explains that they “… went to Normandy to look at the beaches for D-Day, and we went to the D-Day museum. So I think it was really cool to be there and experience these historical landmarks firsthand and learn about them. Because there are things that we learned during A-Push, and being able to be there really gave it a second layer of, the whole point of it is just being able to see other cultures and see these historic landmarks and really just be integrated globally.” Not only is the trip designed to immerse students in foreign cultures, they also “… have an opportunity to earn college credit if they do a certain study and project when we do travel abroad,” stated Mr. Captan.

The U.S. History teacher expressed love for all the stops on the trip, but emphasized that the “students really enjoyed” Normandy and that “Zermatt Switzerland was really awesome, a great experience.” “I think it’s all really fun,” exclaimed the ASB President, “I think what was really cool was that you’re with people that are in your school and something that you’re part of, like the little AGS community. Usually when you travel you’re with your parents or your siblings and it’s all normal and you have to be with them all the time, but this is something that’s new and I got to really meet new people in AGS. I met people who were like underclassmen and also just like the grades below me, like juniors, that I just wouldn’t have met before.”

When asked if they recommend the trip, the CdM girls’ flag football founder (Vovan) suggested members go “at least once in your AGS pathway,” and explained, “I had freshmen who met me and asked me a bunch of questions about AGS and just about high school itself…or even if you’re a senior, it’s just like something to bond with your other graduating seniors. I know I won’t see a lot of these people again, so it’s really cool to have these lifelong memories with them.” Captan simply asked, “Why would you not want to go?”