Leadership students tour New York and Washington D.C. over spring break

By Heyli G.

Ms. Ramos’ Leadership class went on a field trip to Washington D.C. and New York for Spring Break.

Ms. Ramos, a Leadership and Algebra 2 teacher, shared that she planned this field trip because she likes to travel, and when she found out that the school had some available funds for the field trip and that the field trip could be far away.

She found out around 8 days before the field trip was going to take place that the field trip was allowed in the first place.

She said, “So for me it’s like I managed to get 10 students. I know, it was a little bit sad ’cause I couldn’t take all my Leadership kids cause I wanted to take all my Leadership class.”

She’s just happy that she was able to take some kids to experience the trip.

When aske,d what she expects for the students to take away from this experience, Ms. Ramos shared, “So I’m hoping that the 10 kids that get to go to Washington, D.C. or New York they see something there that they like, and they’re like ‘oh I want to come back,’ or ‘oh wow, what if I go to Chicago next?’”

Ms. Ramos wants students to be curious about wanting to visit more places because most of the time you’re stuck with what you know and it’s more fun when you learn other things.

She said, “Like I used to travel a lot with my parents to Mexico but we went to family, you went to people you know.”

She further explained that it’s different when you travel to unknown things, it helps open your eyes to how different people live.

Their trip consisted of a packed schedule.

Ms. Ramos shared “Well, we have an itinerary that’s very, very full because since we’re doing it through a travel agency. They kind of have everything outlined for us.”

One thing she told the students was that they’re expected to walk around 5 to 10 miles a day. Some of the stops included the White House, the 9/11 monument, the Statue of Liberty, and a Broadway show over the 6-day trip.

“I’m excited every time I can travel,” she said, adding, “I’m so happy and especially this one that’s free.”

Though she was excited, she nervous about one thing.

“I think 5 of [the students] have never been on an airplane before. So I’m scared because I’m not their parent so if they panic,” she said.

But, Ms. Ramos shared that she doesn’t feel nervous over being responsible for 10 students out of state because the tour agency EF made her feel comfortable.

If someone gets sick the company will fly their parents out to go see the kid and bring them back.

According to Ms. Ramos, “At the hotels, the tour company is gonna have surveillance 24 hours, so if someone tries to sneak out they’ll know. So, for me it’s kind of like, they gave me so much of a relief because I don’t have to babysit. I’m there to help guide the tours.”

She also felt better knowing English teacher Mr. Dominguez would chaperone the trip.

Students shared how they felt ahead of their trip.

Alexandra M., an 11th grader, said “I feel excited because everything is all paid, everything free, everything is, like, I think the meals, some of the meals are paid.” She added that the only thing she would have to worry about is her work for her AP classes.

She shared that she is not scared to go out of state without her family because she has done it before when she went to Mexico, but she’s worried about going on the plane.

Shes aid, “It’s not my first time, but it’s like you know something to be scared of, especially after the [movie] about the “Society of the Snow” — that one me dio miedo.”

When asked what she expects to do/learn from the trip, Alexandra shared “I think, to be honest, I don’t know what to learn, I don’t know what to expect from the trip ’cause like, yes, it’s an educational trip ’cause we’re going to explore museums, visit places.”

When interviewed again after the trip, Ms. Ramos shared that the trip both met her expectations but also surprised her in other ways.

She said, “Yes and no. Like I guess the amount of walking and, like, he things we were going to see, yes. But, no, because I didn’t expect the kids to bond so closely like the way they bonded.”

She added that she was scared because the students would be sharing a room. She expressed that she was happy that the bonding went well considering she wasn’t expecting it.

Overall, she stated that the trip itself was as expected because of the sightseeing and knowing the weather since they had looked over it.

She and her students knew it was going to rain the first day so they were expecting it.

She shared “We were just getting wet and rain over there is different than rain here. So it’s a different experience, but yeah it was fun.” She said that for the most part, it is what she expected because she has previously done group tours with companies.

In addition, she said that she enjoyed the Broadway show they went to see which had a lot of adult satire, so she was shocked they were going with a group from another middle school since she thought it was fine for the high school students.

She added “But, I think that the Broadway show was a highlight and I wanna say the Statue of Liberty was a pretty nice experience, the skyscraper that we went to, and then the capitol. When we did a tour of the Capitol building.” There were a lot of highlights here and there.

Ms. Ramos stated that she prefers both New York and Washington D.C. for different reasons. She explained that “Sightseeing-wise, New York definitely has more. But, just how it looks aesthetically pleasing is Washington.”

Horlando A., a 12th grader, said that his favorite part about the trip was the World War II memorial and when he visited a place with a lot of veterans along with memorials.

He also added that it was his first time going on a plane and that he was expecting more turbulence but they had a good pilot.

He added “When we got there it was bad ’cause we were walking continuously through the rain on the first day, which made us mad since we were wet and cold and we just wanted to settle down into our hotels.”

They weren’t able to go to the hotel until 9:00 am and after that, they stayed in D.C. for another 2 days.

When asked if he preferred D.C. or New York, he said “Definitely New York more.”

He added that the views in New York are what you expect for a field trip although the views in D.C. were nice because they were more natural.

He further explained, “We also got to see, go to the top of the 9/11 memorial which was crazy ’cause we took a whole elevator and it got us there in like 15 seconds over 100 floors.”

He shared that he ended up creating a bigger bond with his classmates who went on the trip. He further added that he had to share a room with the other 2 male students. He said, “At first it was a little bit rocky but with bed scheduling, we managed to kind of wing with it and it ended up being fun.”

Horlando stated “It’s obviously its ups and downs. Overall I just had a good time. So mostly just positive feelings throughout the whole trip.”