Forty-nine St. Andrew’s upper school students and six faculty/staff members took advantage of the recent spring break to explore the world beyond Potomac. School-sponsored trips to South Africa, Italy, and Orlando, Florida provided students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in different cultures, bond as classmates, and broaden their horizons. In doing so, they continued a St. Andrew’s tradition of learning about the world in a practical way through home stays, community outreach, and varied cross-cultural experiences.

St. Andrew’s Director of Diversity Stacy Kincaid, a Spanish teacher, led 12 sophomore, junior, and senior students to South Africa. It was the school’s fourteenth annual trip to the country that originated in 2001 through the efforts of former Performing Arts teacher Roy Barber. The South Africa trip has become a hallmark experience for many St. Andrew’s students due in large part to its deep connection to the Bokamoso Youth Center in Winterveld. As Bokamoso had visited St. Andrew’s in January, St. Andrew’s did the same visiting Bokamoso where students had the chance to strengthen friendships built over the course of the last three months. Middle school Math instructor Frank Wagner also acted as a chaperone.

The trip found students traveling to Cape Town, the Bokamoso Center in Winterveld, Soweto in Johannesburg, and the Pilanesburg Game Reserve. The purpose of the trip was "to explore the striking beauty and grace of the South African landscape, as well as experience the country's social and political challenges at each stage of the journey." During the trip, students performed community service at the Ned Doman High School in Cape Town, the Bokamoso Youth Center, and the Soweto Kliptown Youth Organization.

According to Kincaid, the benefit of the South Africa trip for students “goes beyond cultural awareness and understanding. The trip exposes students to a wide variety of non-profit organizations doing work in South African communities. They had to push past their own personal physical and emotional discomfort to understand the experience of people living in poverty and violence. The trip asks students to draw parallels to the U.S.'s own struggles with racism, discrimination, and wealth inequality.”

English instructor Mike Davila and Tricia Bennett, the school’s registrar, led a trip to Italy that saw 12 students exploring Astia Attica, Sorrento, Pompei, Herculaneum, Hadrian's Villa, Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, and Rome “to witness first hand the great treasures of the Ancient Roman Empire, the artistic wonders of the Renaissance, and the Modern day life of 21st century Italy.”

Along the way, they learned about how ancient Romans lived. For the second part of the trip, the travellers journeyed to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance and the Athens of the Middle Ages, to visit the Uffizi and Academe Galleries to see the masterwork sculptures and artworks of Michelangelo and other great artists of the time period. For the third stage of the sojourn, the students explored the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, the Forum, and the Colesseum.

Travelling closer to home was the St. Andrew’s boys’ varsity lacrosse team who visited Orlando, Florida for the purpose of practicing, skill development, team bonding, scrimmaging other teams, and to escape the cold of the Mid-Atlantic. In all, 25 athletes and their four coaches weathered a 14 hour bus ride to and from Orlando to make the trip a reality.

Besides playing the Pingry School from New Jersey and the Lake Mary School from Florida, head coach Bobby Horsey’s squad received an exclusive tour of EA Sports, the award-winning computer gaming company, and heard from the Chesapeake Bayhawks’ head lacrosse coach Dave Cottle, Horsey’s former coach at Loyola, as well as from Matt Hogan, the former head lacrosse coach at the University of Pennsylvania.

The trip proved beneficial for the team on a number of fronts including the opportunity to bond as a team and make new friends. Horsey believes that the trip also gave his players a glimpse of what it is like to play in college. As he stated, “Being together 24/7 for four days, taking a long bus ride, eating all of our meals together, practicing together, and being responsible for being on time and in charge of one’s belongings was an excellent way for the team to solidify their relationship and to get to know their coaches better.”

This summer St. Andrew’s will offer Math teacher Gregg Ponitch’s annual community service trip to Chicago as well as Spanish instructor Jessica Sellinger’s trip to Spain.