After a two-year hiatus due to COVID restrictions, the Center for Service and Global Citizenship (CSGC) resumed Deerfield’s summer travel trips to Jordan, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, and the Dominican Republic.
During the 9-day Dominican Republic trip, students partnered with Cambiando Vidas to build a house in the village of Lavapie. Cambiando Vidas, which means “changing lives” in Spanish, is an organization that supports families in the Dominican Republic by constructing houses for them. Students helped build the structure from one cinder block high to a fully functional house with running water and electricity. This was the 12th house that Deerfield students built in the Dominican Republic, and it was built in honor of Aiden Day ’17, who participated in two house builds while he attended Deerfield. On his first trip to the Dominican Republic, a boy from an orphanage entrusted Aiden with a small rock to keep safe. This summer, the rock was brought back and placed in the front corner of the house. On Deerfield’s campus, in front of John Williams dormitory, a stone beneath a memorial tree reads “Aiden Francesco Day ’17 1998-2020. He always put the needs of others before himself, sharing these words: ‘Every person has a place of goodness in their heart; it is our job to help bring it out into the world.’” In his journal, Aiden wrote, “There is a difference between a house and a home. I define home as a place where you feel the happiest. It’s the place you feel the safest, the place that brings back the most memories, the place where you feel you belong.”’
The Dominican Republic was an unplugged trip where students could not access phones or the internet. Lauren Smith ’24 found this to be valuable and said, “Without the distraction of a phone, I was rewarded with the time to form deeper relationships with both my peers and the local residents.” This trip helped her realize “how much more you get in life when you are engaged in the world around you without the presence of a phone.”
The 8-day Bahamas unplugged trip was centered around marine ecology and sustainability and took place on the island of Eleuthera. Students worked with the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI), a research and innovation center at the Island School in Eleuthera, and learned about environmental awareness and impact. Researchers at CEI welcomed Deerfield students into their research about habitat conservation. The group learned about conch fishing, its availability, and its impact on cultural and economic growth. They examined 156 conches for data collection, looking at lip thickness, age, and harvesting time. They also spent plenty of time in the water, including an adventure snorkeling in mangroves. They saw many small fish that were hidden in mangroves for protection and also encountered some pufferfish and a lemon shark.
Even a downpour in the middle of their trip didn’t stop the group from venturing outside and enjoying the Bahamas landscape. Recalling her favorite moment from the trip, Elizabeth Richards ’24 said, “One day, as a tropical storm passed through, we went on a SERT (South Eleuthera Road Trip). Despite being soaked through, we had fun exploring a cave with a huge bat population and caverns that opened up to the outside. Despite the weather, we were still outside and really experiencing each moment.”
Students were also encouraged to practice mindfulness about their own environmental impact by thinking about waste, water, and electricity usage. During their stay at the Island School, the group observed how the school practices environmental consciousness through food, water, and waste. Food scraps are either fed to pigs or composted, and waste habits are turned into habitats for fungi. They collect water in five large cisterns and conserve water usage during dry spells. As an island nation, the Island School works to find sustainable solutions to problems that larger countries may not face, such as infertile soil and limited waste management. They have created a system where they farm a species of fish and harvest its waste to fertilize the garden. After the fish outgrow the tanks, they are taken to the kitchen to be fileted.
For 13 days, the students on the United Kingdom trip examined the intersections between art and contemporary culture. During the first week, they explored different neighborhoods in London to discover how art affects society. They visited towns like Bristol and Camden and traveled to museums such as Tate Modern and Tate Britain. Two Envoys staff members joined the Deerfield students, discussing the differences between being a tourist versus a traveler and ways to maintain respect for different cultures in new environments. In the second week, students took classes at the University of the Arts London and experimented with different mediums of art.
Charlotte Steffensen ’25 decided to apply for the United Kingdom trip because she was taking the Introduction to Studio Art class. She enjoyed taking a sculpture class at the University of the Arts London and learning about new mediums such as plaster and wire. Although Steffenson was nervous because it was her first time flying overseas without her family, she said, “During the trip, almost all my nerves went away, and I was always excited about the new activities planned each day. I missed my family, but at the end of the trip, I wished that I could have stayed in London for longer.”
The Jordan trip was a 9-day exploration focusing on deepening students’ awareness of culture and language. Students experienced the rich culture and history of Jordan by visiting different sites, touring the landscape, sampling Middle Eastern food, and participating in workshops. The group also visited the city of Jerash to promote the “Close the Gap” campaign by supporting women in sports. Students visited the Dead Sea, where they were able to swim, float with little effort, and touch the bottom, which was made of salt sheets. They also got their hands in the kitchen at Beit Sitti, a local business that offers cooking classes. Beit Sitti translates to “Grandmother’s House.” They learned a traditional Jordanian dish called maqloubeh which is a combination of chicken, rice, cauliflower, and various spices. Deerfield’s sister school, King’s Academy, hosted the group at the beginning and end of their journey. Each student was given a different job to handle in order to create a complete dinner for everyone. The group concluded their journey and exploration of Jordan’s culture, landscape, and food with a homemade meal at Arabic Teacher Lina Al Samawi’s house.
Although Josephine Cramer ’24 currently takes Latin at Deerfield, she applied for the Jordan trip to explore a different culture and climate. Before the trip, she had never been farther East than central Europe. She enjoyed learning new things while being immersed in the culture and food of Jordan. Cramer said, “You are never hungry in Jordan. There’s so much delicious beef, chicken, lamb, stuffed grape leaves, vegetables, pita, and hummus. I was constantly learning new words in Arabic while learning about all these new foods.”
Some members of the group had their Jordan trip cut short due to COVID. Two days before the scheduled departure date out of Jordan, Max Peh ’24 tested positive for COVID. He had symptoms on the fourth day and got tested the next day. Regarding how the school handled his positive diagnosis, Peh said, “The first day was rough because the school didn’t prepare for it, and no one really knew what we had to do.” He was later informed that he needed to quarantine in the dorm at King’s Academy until he tested negative in order to fly out. He tested daily at the King’s Academy lab. Peh believes that Deerfield “could have done better with testing before [the group] left for Jordan because there was someone in the group that had symptoms before [the group] even got to Jordan, but they never got tested.”
Regardless of an unexpected ending for some students, the group was still able to enjoy learning about Jordan thanks to the help of Ms. Samawi. Ms. Samawi encouraged the Jordan trip because she wanted to provide a chance for many different types of students, including Arabic learners, Middle East historians, and Jordan enthusiasts. She hoped to give students an opportunity “to experience everything that [she thought] Jordan represented and the Jordanian culture and the Arab culture.” Ms. Samawi worked at King’s Academy for 10 years before coming to Deerfield. She was the Class Dean and Director of the Arabic Year Program. She helped plan the entire itinerary and worked with a close friend, who owns a travel agency in Jordan, along with members in the CSGC office to work on logistics and planning daily agendas. She enjoyed working “with intelligent, passionate members of the Deerfield community who truly care about the mission of those trips and what these trips bring to the Deerfield student experience.” Her favorite moments of the trip include the times the group spent eating together, seeing new things, reflecting, and bonding. For future summers, she hopes to make Jordan an annual CSGC trip. After navigating COVID restrictions for the past few years, the continuation of Deerfield’s summer travel trips will allow students to enrich their knowledge by engaging in skills and developing new perspectives geared towards global citizenship.