STUDENT TRAVELERS (NM)
STUDENT TRAVELERS (WV)
STUDENT TRAVELERS (BAHAMAS)
STUDENT TRAVELERS (CR)
STUDENT TRAVELERS (PR)
TEACHER TRAVELERS
Within the last year, Calvert facilitated domestic and international travel opportunities for 91 students and 19 teachers. This group of 110 spent a total of 93 days learning away from campus.
High atop a platform in the trees, safely secured via cables, Calvert Eighth Graders prepare to soar through the lush green canopy of the Costa Rican jungle. One by one, the 16 students line up to take their turn on the zipline, and one by one, each student steps forward to soar through the trees. As they fly toward the next platform, they marvel at the beauty that surrounds them and the uniqueness of this experience.
“As we rode above the trees, we could see a beautiful view of the El Arenal volcano in the misty background, and it was truly breathtaking,” Preston Rayme ’24, Hailey Miller ’24, and Teddy Murphy ’24 shared in a blog post. “Everyone felt like they were part of the forest, instead of feeling like we were intruding on it as outsiders. We felt like birds flying above the trees of the jungle.”
This year alone, Calvert School sent 91 students and 19 employees around the country — and around the world — for 93 days of immersive learning and professional development.
These experiences, made possible through the Institute for Leadership & Purpose (ILP) and teacher travel grants, respectively, enable Calvert to thrive in its mission to grow wellrounded global citizens.
For students, this process begins with the ILP, which facilitates on and off-campus leadership opportunities. This year, the ILP expanded to feature five leadership journeys — an increase of two over last year — during the school year. In October, two groups of Seventh Graders traveled to New Mexico and West Virginia, respectively, while Eighth Graders had the opportunity to go to either Costa Rica or the Bahamas. In the spring, the program continued with another Seventh Grade trip, this time to Puerto Rico.
As in years past, each leadership journey explored a variety of leadership themes, including sustainability, conservation, marine life, awareness of indigenous cultures and people, and community engagement. Students reflected on each of these themes in daily blog posts.
LEADERSHIP JOURNEYS
In April, Olivia Desai ’24, who participated in the Costa Rica journey with 15 of her peers, spoke about her experience with an audience of Calvert friends and donors. She described the trip’s focus on responsible tourism, outdoor education, and sustainability in addition to challenge-by-choice activities such as zip-lining.
“We spent each day hosted by a different nonprofit organization, learning about a variety of environmental issues in Costa Rica,” she said. “We volunteered one morning with a local school,
played soccer with people in the community, and tried a few challenging adventures.”
"Everyone felt like they were part of the forest, instead of feeling like we were intruding on it as outsiders. We were like birds flying above the trees of the jungle.
- Preston Rayme '24, Hailey Miller '24 and Teddy Murphy '24
For her, the most impactful part of the journey was meeting and speaking with a local farmer, Daniel, who used to work for a commercial pineapple plantation that participated in monocropping, or planting the same crop on the same land year after year. Mono-cropping, she learned, can damage the soil. That’s why Daniel decided to leave and open his own organic farm.
“Now, I know more about the importance of caring for the environment and protecting the resources around us,” Olivia said. “When I first got to Daniel’s farm that day, it was hard for me to understand how one single fruit, like pineapples, which provides such great benefits to the economy, could also be so harmful to the environment. But after meeting Daniel and spending the day at his farm, I was able to more fully understand a different perspective.”
In October, the ILP launched another new leadership journey, a six-day cultural immersion trip to New Mexico in partnership with the World Leadership School. While there, 20 Seventh Graders and three Calvert guides stayed on a Native American reservation near Pueblo de Cochiti, where they learned about traditional drummaking and constructed a pig pen for the Keres Children’s Learning Center School.
As their journey continued, the students explored Bandelier National Monument and the ancient cliff dwellings that were once home to the Cochiti people.
“As we were walking the beautiful trails, surrounded by the tall, majestic trees, we saw some wildlife, including a tarantula and a snake. We’ve really gotten a taste for the flora and fauna of New Mexico from experiences such as these. We hear the coyotes in the distance every night when we sleep. We see the bright golden cottonwood trees all around. We stopped today on our hike to soak in the babble of a cool, peaceful stream,” the students shared in their trip blog.
“From today’s activities, we learned to respect the places of the past,” Andrew Diemert ’25, Daniel Sun ’25, Desmond Tilghman ’25, Patrick Tilghman ’25, and Henry Yost ’25 wrote. “We also realized that no matter where we are, even in the middle of the desert, we can find beauty.”
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How many Middle Schoolers do you know that have had this many opportunities to grow, volunteer, and travel independently, all before they enter ninth grade? These experiences have shaped us. We are headed off to high school feeling ready for our next chapter.
- Olivia Desai '24
Fall leadership journeys continued with adventures in West Virginia and the Bahamas. Each trip explored the ecology of its area. In West Virginia, 21 Seventh Grade students focused on orienteering, or wilderness navigation, and had the opportunity to go caving and climbing. As in years past, the students summited Spruce Knob, the highest ridge in the Allegheny Mountains. While some of these tasks may have seemed daunting at the beginning of the journey, students were able to rely on each other and teachers Craig Bennett, Luis Padilla, and John Simms ’09 for support. By the end of their journey, the students had faced their fears, grown closer as friends, and developed vital teamwork skills.
Meanwhile, in the Bahamas, the Eighth Graders’ exploration of the natural world included hands-on lessons in aquaponics, marine biology, and more. During their stay in Cape Eleuthera with the Island School, the 19 students also participated in a beach cleanup and tested their mettle in an Island School tradition: the Run-Swim.
The Run-Swim is an energizing activity that involves students following an obstacle course of land and sea-based challenges. Together, the students run or jog along a dirt path, race to local landmarks, and jump into the nearby water — cheering for each other as they go.
“Getting to the other side, we could finally see the end — the Bahamian flag waving in the chilly wind, giving us all the energy to make the final stretch of the run,” Alex Getschel ’24 and Simon Lacombe ’24 shared. “We rushed to the flagpole and smacked the chilly pole. We felt as though we accomplished the impossible. Some were not fast or strong swimmers, fast or strong runners, but by all odds, we kept on moving, encouraged each other along the way, and finished together as one group representing Calvert School.”
We felt as though we accomplished the impossible. Some were not fast or strong swimmers or fast or strong runners, but by all odds, we kept on moving, encouraged each other along the way, and finished together as one group representing Calvert School.
Economic Development of Ceiba, is a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainability, responsible tourism, and more through its Eastern Eco-Tourism Center on a former U.S. naval base. Over the past several years, Calvert students have begun their Puerto Rican leadership journeys by assisting with renovations and improvements to the campus. The students move furniture, clean spaces, plant trees and other foliage on the grounds, and more. The group also visited Casa De Los Niños Montessori, a local school, to engage with its community and meet student leaders.
“We helped them roof their chicken coop and dig a trench to protect the chickens from pests," the students shared. "We also helped them repair their free book station as well as catalog and add shelf labels to their library.”
- Alex Getschel '24 and Simon Lacombe '24
As in years past, the students also explored San Juan with an adventure race and learned about Puerto Rico’s social, political, and environmental history. Toward the end of their journey, the Seventh Graders also experienced kayaking on a natural bio-luminescent lagoon.
In the spring, this year’s leadership journeys concluded with a fifth and final trip: Puerto Rico. Fifteen Seventh Graders participated in the journey, which centered on renovations to the APRODEC campus. APRODEC, or the Alliance for the
“We learned from our guide that plankton in the water make the sparkles we could see as a defense mechanism. We pulled a tarp over all the kayaks so not even the moonlight was shining,” Seventh Graders Blair Kinney ’25, Sydney Bramble ’25, and Alexandra Logsdon ’25 shared. “In this darkness, we saw color
explode when we touched the water. It was incredibly magical. You could see trails of glow behind jumping and swimming fish. Running your hand through the warm water made beautiful blue whirls and continued to glitter on our hands like stars.”
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND THE JOHN WORK GARRETT ’36 MEMORIAL FUND
Just as Calvert knows the value of experiential learning for students, the School believes in the continual growth and enrichment of the faculty and staff. For this reason, the School supports teachers who aim to widen their own world views and bring their findings back to campus. Much of this support is made possible by professional development funds and the Garrett Grant, endowed in honor of John Work Garrett ’36. This year, these funds sponsored five Calvert teachers as they traveled during the summer of 2023.
Not only was I able to bring back the stories of my own experiences and adventures, I was able to show the students woven baskets, carved walking sticks, and animal prints made on banana leaves.
It was an incredible opportunity and the chance of a lifetime to see and experience this part of the world.
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- Caroline Marris, Sixth Age Teacher
Over the course of 13 days, Sixth Age homeroom teacher Caroline Marris traveled to Kigali, Rwanda, to enhance the Lower School’s Expedition Calvert geography curriculum. During her trip, Ms. Marris toured Kigali, the nation’s capital and largest city, hiked through Akagera National Park on a two-day safari, and visited Lake Kivu, which divides Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ms. Marris also explored Volcanoes National Park, where she and a small group tracked a family of mountain gorillas.
“Not only was I able to bring back the stories of my own experiences and adventures, I was able to show the students woven baskets, carved walking sticks, and animal prints made on banana leaves. It was an incredible opportunity and the chance of a lifetime to see and experience this part of the world,” Ms. Marris said.
In June, Middle School history teacher Justin Short spent nine days on an immersive tour of the Civil Rights Trail, which spanned from Nashville, Tennessee, to Atlanta, Georgia, and featured landmarks associated with the fight for civil rights in the American South. His journey took him to key locations like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and the Mason Temple in Memphis, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his final speech. Mr. Short brought his experiences back to his Eighth Grade students, who learn about this tumultuous period in American history.
Lower School teachers Ashley Barnett and Emma Burkhart spent seven and nine days in Minnesota and Andalucia, Spain, respectively, to study subjects related to their Calvert classes. During her travels, Ms. Barnett spent time with members of the Ojibwe and Lakota tribes, who taught her about Native American storytelling. Mrs. Burkhart, who taught Spanish before becoming Lower School librarian, took an immersive language course in Cadiz while immersing herself in the culture of southern Spain.
“My hope is that hearing about my travels and delving into books about different countries will foster the kind of open-minded
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curiosity in our students that will help them grow into global citizens,” Mrs. Burkhart said.
Similarly, Middle School Latin teacher and Certamen advisor Jeff Snow spent three weeks traveling through France and the United Kingdom, where he viewed the “Boadicea and Her Daughters” statue near the British House of Parliament. The statue depicts the ancient queen Boudica, or Boadicea, who rebelled against Roman conquest in the region and bravely led her tribe into battle. While her rebellion was unsuccessful, Boudica remains a symbol of the fight for justice and freedom among the British people. Mr. Snow introduced the fierce queen in his classes this spring.
Like the ILP student programs, teacher travel serves to strengthen the Calvert community’s global perspective and enhance the curriculum already taught on campus. Both programs facilitate immersive experiences that widen the worldviews of the Calvert community.
“How many Middle Schoolers do you know that have had this many opportunities to grow, volunteer, and travel independently, all before they enter ninth grade? These experiences have shaped us,” Olivia Desai ’24 said. “We are headed off to high school feeling ready for our next chapter.”
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