Developing a Global Perspective

International travel experiences give RSGC students the opportunity to expand their learning outside the classroom, engage with different cultures, and take part in hands-on service work. 

Through these experiences, boys learn to appreciate the differences and similarities across cultures and develop skills to be global citizens. This March Break, boys in Grades 7-12 went on trips in locations as diverse as Europe, the Amazon, the Caribbean, Central America and Asia.
 
A group of students in Grades 10 and 12 (along with students from London and Halifax, and faculty chaperones Tim Hutton and Alison Hart) travelled to Poland and Germany to participate in a program coordinated by Coalition for Kids International and Fundacja Dziecieca Fantazja, a charity that grants wishes to terminally ill and severely disabled children. After a historic tour of Warsaw, the students travelled by train to Berlin, where they spent two nights and toured the German Reichstag and other historic sites, such as Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall. Afterward, they travelled to Krakow, Poland, where they visited the historic Old Town, Auschwitz concentration camp, and the Wieliczka Salt Mine (a UNESCO World Heritage site), and visited the homes of 10 Polish children and their families who are living with such conditions as cancer, spina bifida, and cystic fibrosis, to deliver wishes. The students also had the opportunity to visit with disabled children and their families at a rehabilitation centre, and met with RSGC alumnus Ian Firla ’89 and the Canadian Ambassador to Poland, Stephen de Boer.
 
Meanwhile, a group of ten students in Grades 10-12, along with teachers Julie Girvan and Michelle Bader-Shaw, travelled to Belize for a service trip as part of a partnership with St. Joseph’s Primary School in the Cotton Tree Village, Cayo District. While there, the boys worked on various projects for the school, including building a new school sign, improving their waste facilities and building walkways between classrooms. Along with this work, they brought donations of much needed school supplies, such as books, paper, pens, pencils, stickers, soccer balls and more. RSGC students also had the opportunity to meet with the students at St. Joseph’s and spend a morning playing games together. The goal of the trip, according to trip leader Julie Girvan was to “develop a greater sense of cultural literacy and global awareness, as well as…skills in group dynamics, communication, problem solving, flexibility, adaptability, self-direction, and responsibility.” Grade 12 student Liam O’Sullivan recalls that the trip not only helped him to develop a sense of perspective on his own privilege, but also to make new friends and set and accomplish goals. Despite being a seasoned traveller, Liam says the Belize service trip was “unequivocally the most thought-provoking trip in terms of values and my self-understanding.”
 
Ten boys in Grades 7 and 8 flew to Quito, Ecuador, followed by an eight-hour bus ride into the Amazon, to work at a water filtration and purification project in the town of Los Rios. The trip was coordinated by Me to We and the boys were accompanied by teachers Brian Robinson and Janet Stephenson. According to Brian, “The boys took their work very seriously and saw some real progress after all our hard work.” Their afternoons were spent visiting the local community, including a cacao farm, a fruit producer, a women’s co-op that sold their beads and bracelets in a craft fair, and the local school in Los Rios, where the group spent a few hours playing soccer with the school kids. On the last day, they flew back to Quito, where they toured the city (a UNESCO World Heritage site).
 
In addition to the service trips, two groups had a chance to have a cross-cultural experience on trips to Cuba and Japan.
 
The spring training trip to Cuba was an opportunity for RSGC student athletes to receive high-level baseball coaching and training, while experiencing a vibrant society undergoing significant cultural change. In between training sessions with Cuban coaches and games against local teams, the boys experienced a variety of cultural activities in and around Havana, including music, dancing, food and historic tours. They visited a community centre for at-risk youth, where they watched a group of dancers perform a variety of folk, Afro-Cuban and Latin dances – and even had a chance to try some salsa and conga dancing themselves – and found themselves in a variety of adventurous situations, such as removing a grazing goat from the outfield before a rural game, according to faculty chaperones Luke Rankin and Christopher Newton.
 
Meanwhile, band members in Grades 9-12 travelled to Japan, where they engaged in a cultural exchange with Tokai University Gyosei High School in Osaka, studying for four days and performing a final concert with the Japanese students. The remainder of the trip was spent outside Osaka, in locations such as Nara National Park, Kiyomizu-dera Temple and Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto. They also had the opportunity to participate in judo, kendo and a traditional tea ceremony, learned Japanese calligraphy and origami, and sampled Japanese cuisine including sushi and okonomiyaki. “It was a fantastic trip,” said Gary Martin, instrumental music teacher and trip chaperone. “We made many new friends, tasted new foods, learned about Japanese culture, [and] saw beautiful sights…in addition to the wonderful music we made and heard with the Japanese students.”
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