EXPLORING THE CITY Members of Mater Dei Student Publications pose for a photo near the clock tower at Boston College. From Nov. 1-Nov. 5, several students enrolled in Newspaper and Yearbook classes had the opportunity to visit Boston and learn more about the publications process through a journalism convention as well as sightseeing around the historic city. “Going out and exploring things is an opportunity given by Mater Dei for a lot of courses, [and] being able to go to Boston and learn about a class I’m very interested in is always a pleasure,” senior Jordan St. John said. Photo courtesy of Mater Dei Student Publications.

Mater Dei provides a wide variety of supplements for coursework, one of the most interactive ways is school trips. The goal for students going on these school trips is to enrich and build upon ordinary classroom lessons in new environments, whether it is through learning about a different culture, performing, or using skills from the classroom and applying them to real life. School trips are most commonly offered for electives and language classes, such as Mater Dei Student Publications, the Choral and Vocal Music Program, and language classes.

Each year, Mater Dei’s Student Publications Program is invited to attend a journalism convention specifically for high school students across the nation. This year, it was held in Boston and several students from Newspaper and Yearbook decided to attend. In addition to the convention sessions, students had the opportunity to visit various sightseeing places and were able to tour Boston College. Senior Jordan Saint John highlights the journalism convention as her favorite part of the trip and explains what she learned from it.

“A lot of the stuff that we learned was [about] different ways of writing,” Saint John said. “All the sessions were really fun and they had a bunch of places [where] you could talk to colleges about journalism [and the programs they offer].”

Saint John enjoyed the trip and shares how it enriched her experience as a staff reporter for The Scarlet Scroll.

“Boston is a really nice place to go to,” Saint John said. “The sessions at the convention itself are very [informative] and [help] you with a lot of the writing that we do here at Mater Dei.”

Performing Arts classes also offer many opportunities for students to embark on school trips. Every other year, Mater Dei’s advanced choirs go on a performance tour in New York City. This spring, they will be performing at the David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Memorial Center. Sophomore Xavier Luna, a member of Honors Chambers Choir, has high hopes for their performances.

“I’m looking forward to performing for everyone in such a beautiful place,” Luna said. “I think it’s going to be a blast.”

In addition to singing, the advanced choirs will also be sightseeing around the city, seeing locations such as the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more. They will also get the chance to see a couple of Broadway shows. Luna looks forward to making many memories and trying new things with his fellow choir members on this exciting trip.

“I think it will enrich our bond as a choir and I think it’s [a good learning experience] to travel and sing in places we don’t normally sing in,” Luna said.

The French department has been in the process of organizing a trip to France for a long time, and this year students will finally embark on the trip during spring break. While it is open to all classes, the group is kept rather small and is mostly composed of French language students and a few students taking other world languages.

Junior Katherine Ruiz has been taking French for three years and is currently in Honors French III. After hearing about the French trip for a long time, she looks forward to finally going and learning more about the culture.

“This has been advertised for a really long time- since I was a freshman,” Ruiz said. “I think it’s really exciting and interesting to see the culture of France not only because we’re learning it, but we will be seeing the history of [the country] and how different it is compared to the U.S.”

Ruiz explains how the French trip will influence her understanding of the language.

“Going to France to see the culture, how they speak, [and] how they interact with people will help us hopefully become more fluent and [encourage] our learning of French,” Ruiz said.

Overall, school trips provide a fun way for students to learn lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom and offer them a chance of a lifetime to truly experience moments that relate to everything they have learned about in their classes.

“School trips help us learn about different places in the world, getting us out of our bubble and exposing us to different experiences,” Ruiz said.