It was a busy Thanksgiving break for numerous Archmere students as the Stage Band traveled to Puerto Rico and students participating in the Global Studies Program flew out to Nicaragua.
Each year, Archmere’s Stage Band does a trip, this year embarking on their journey to Puerto Rico. They were invited by Ponce High School in the town of Ponce to perform alongside their band.
The Stage Band engaged in many activities while in Puerto Rico, including exploring the rainforest, traveling to Old San Juan, and attending a rhythms workshop where they learned about the origins of Puerto Rican music. When asked about her experience ninth grader Annabel DiSabatino said, “It was a great cultural experience to learn about Puerto Rican culture, and to enhance the language I am currently studying.”
On the second day of the trip, the Stage Band performed after an orchestra at the Museo Parque De Bombas, a plaza featuring live music. The next night, they performed alongside the band at the Ponce High School, a music high school, at a friendship concert. Afterwards, they had dinner and a meet-and-greet with students in the other band. According to Archmere students, this was a great cultural experience because although they spoke different languages, proving to be a challenge, they overcame that challenge and made new friends. Ms. Young, a chaperone on the trip, shared that there is an immense amount of influence from different places because it’s the firstst island along the water current direction towards America.
This trip taught both students and staff all about a new culture and gave the students a chance to perform and bond with other high school students their age.
On November 24th, students in the Global Studies Program, left Archmere Academy, and flew to Nicaragua. Global Studies Coordinator Mr. Tim Dougherty described his experience in Nicaragua as “fabulous.” Dougherty said the trip was “exactly what I expected and always a little bit more.”
Archmere students tutored children from Centro de Oportunidad, a primary school outside Granada. Archmere students spent half their day working at the school and the other half having fun and exploring the fascinating culture of Nicaragua. Archmere offers many exciting traveling opportunities, but this one was different as Dougherty said, “I wanted to do more of a pure service trip.”
Students spent half of their days in Nicaragua, working hard as they tutored the children, painted murals, and helped to set up the Centro de Oportunidad’s Christmas party. They spent the other half of their days being active as they completed a walking tour of Granada where they experienced the Granada Market. They completed other activities including, ziplining and swimming. They even went on a fun excursion with the children from Centro de Oportunidad to a water park. Some of Archmere’s excursions were spontaneous: on Friday they visited a trash dump to give their service to the impoverished living around the area.
Overall, the trip showed the value of recognizing the value of all people. The children at this particular school do not normally get visitors nor do they ever have the chance to see outside their town. Altogether, the trip was important as it allowed for Archmere students to give the children the attention they deserved.