Farewells at Sullivan West

Linda Drollinger
Posted 8/21/12

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — At the June 18 meeting of the Sullivan West Central School District Board of Education, there were goodbyes to some of its own as well as the exciting prospect of a …

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Farewells at Sullivan West

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LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — At the June 18 meeting of the Sullivan West Central School District Board of Education, there were goodbyes to some of its own as well as the exciting prospect of a four-nation European trip planned for March 2016.

Student board member and graduating senior Isabella Kent received two parting gifts: her board meeting nameplate and carry-on rolling luggage. Off to SUNY Maritime at Fort Schuyler in Throggs Neck, NY, formerly known as the Merchant Marine Academy, Kent’s studies begin, as all cadet programs do, with boot camp. The academy’s academic and maritime instruction will prepare her for a variety of careers in marine transportation and shipyard management; Kent hopes eventually to captain an ocean liner or pilot a ferry. In recognition of her solid secondary school performance, Kent received the Milt Gaebel scholarship and the Len Miret sports award.

High school language teacher and French Club advisor Daniela Fox presented to the board a detailed proposal for a student trip through France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany during next year’s spring recess, March 19 to 27, 2016. Highlights will include the Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a cruise down the Seine, Innsbruck, Lucerne, Munich, Obergammerau and the Dachau Memorial.

Emphasizing that the trip is a multi-discipline learning intensive with focus on history, language, dress, culture, art, architecture and geography, Fox said that it is also a marvelous example of experiential learning. Fox said that experience, long hailed as the best teacher, stimulates learning in vivid and unusual ways that classroom instruction does not. About 15 students in grades 10, 11 and 12 have signed up for the trip so far, and the cost for each will be about $2,800. Money for the trip comes partly from fundraising events that have already raised $6,000, which will be disbursed equitably among the travelers.

Parents will finance the trips for more fortunate students, and most have already made either partial or full payments. But some students pay out of their own job earnings and savings. And at least one enterprising student, who has yet to make a single payment, has rented a hotdog vendor’s cart for the summer and intends to use his earnings from that venture to pay his way through Europe.

Well-known attractions like the Louvre and Notre Dame require no introduction, but lesser known attractions like Obergammerau do. The mountainous Bavarian village of Obergammerau is world famous for its Passion Play, performed not by professional actors but by the village inhabitants themselves, a majority of whom play some role in the story of Christ’s passion and death. The Dachau Memorial, at the site of the former Dachau Concentration Camp, allows visitors to respect the untold number of people who died there.

The board will vote at its July meeting to approve or reject the trip as currently planned.

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