Graham hosting interest meeting for summer 2020 Europe trip

English teacher Mrs. Anna Graham has organized another summer trip to Europe for Bearden students this summer.

In the past, Mrs. Graham has been a part of other trips abroad including visits to France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

This trip is 10 days, and students will go to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria starting between May 31 and June 4 and ending between June 9 and June 14. The exact dates will be determined once flights are booked.

Stops will include Munich, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Venice, and Verona, and they will visit places like the concentration camp Dachau and the Swiss Alps. 

Mrs. Graham has always encouraged students to travel abroad and believes that it is a great experience for any student to have, especially when it comes to deciding things about the future. 

“It is an amazing experience for students, particularly high school students because they are learning things and seeing things that I think change their entire perspective on themselves and what they want to do in the future in their lives after high school,” Mrs. Graham said. “I think that if I had the ability to do a trip like this when I was in high school, I would have probably gone to a different college. 

“I think if I had done something like this before, I would have opened my horizons a lot larger than what was even in my realm of thought at the time.”

Anyone can go on the trip as long as they are a freshman in high school or older. To go on the trip, it is not required to be a student at Bearden. Parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, and students from other schools can also go. 

This trip is through the Education First Tours, or EF Tours, company. They organize the tours providing a tour director and local tour guides that organize details like transportation, hotel check-ins, and suggesting activities. They work to keep the trip safe and fun, so students on the trip and parents at home can relax. 

“It’s like a travel agency, but it is specifically geared towards students and through educational tours,” Mrs. Graham said. “It is the largest travel company for students, and they have over 50 offices throughout Europe, and then probably another 50 in the United States, but they travel all over the world.

Also through EF Tours, a student can possibly earn up to half a college credit through doing a project after the trip, but it is not required to go on the trip.  

“EF Tours is one of the only accredited through the College Board tour companies, so if a student desires to get the credit they can,” Mrs. Graham said. “It will show up on your high school transcript when you send your transcripts to colleges, and it shows that you are willing to do new things and go to different places and experience new things.”

The next interest meeting is Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Room 329. If you cannot go to the meeting or have any questions about the trip, see Mrs. Graham in Room 329.