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Summer Program
Global Studies: Off to Vietnam!
May 2nd, 2024
Last week, our entire 8th grade class left for Vietnam!
A Capstone Trip
A four-week international trip, together, is the capstone experience of The Evergreen School Global Studies Program. Throughout the school year, students have prepared for this trip, studying the history, culture, and economic and political situation of Vietnam, with a supplemental Vietnamese language class as well. During their time in Vietnam, they'll also meet their penpals, other students their age with much different but also much in common. Working with NGOs in the country, they'll contribute to a house building project and meet some of the people who will benefit from it. They'll visit important cultural sites, and think about the people who live there now and also in centuries past. They'll take part in several days of a homestay, living with local families. Overall, students will find themselves deeply considering their ideas about what is "normal"—in terms of clothing, housing, daily activities, behavioral expectations, breakfast foods. This kind of trip brings the global experience down to an accessible, human level.
Global Studies Program: Preschool Through 8th Grade
While the month-long trip is of course a highlight, something for students to anticipate as they move through their Evergreen experience, the Global Studies Program is integrated into the Evergreen curriculum (LINK) from preschool on. In age-appropriate ways, students learn to understand that the world is big. Teachers support learning and lessons about different skin colors, about differently abled people, about identity and gender diversity, about equity and equality, and so much more. Evergreen's librarian offers teachers a diverse-books fair at the beginning of the school year, to ensure a range of books featuring diverse topics and characters for their classrooms. Social Justice Days, tailored to Primary (PS-3rd) and Upper Divisions (4th-8th), recent and popular additions to the school year, feature an impressive range of workshops and fun learning opportunities for students, topped by a keynote speaker.
An Experience to Remember
Having the entire 8th grade travel together is a key part of the Global Studies program. Not only do students learn about other countries and lifestyles, but they do it together with their cohort. Some students have been in school together since preschool, while others joined in 6th or 7th grade, but for everyone, this trip leads students to create new bonds and friendships and discover new sides to their classmates. They'll forge new connections, they'll learn how they handle themselves in circumstances very different from an average school day.
And while they're learn about others, our 8th grade class will also learn a lot about themselves: what they bring to the world, and how they move through it and interact. And they'll do it all together, as a whole class, experiencing the same things but processing them differently. It's a wonderful and meaningful way to wrap up their Evergreen experience.
Coming up at Evergreen: Primary Division Social Justice Day is just around the corner, on May 31!
