The 2023 Intensive Learning trips were first unveiled in September, but for the trips’ faculty advisers, the collaborative planning process for some trips started nearly a year ago. 

For the first time since IL 2019, students were able to travel internationally for their experiences again. This year, students’ international journeys spanned 5 countries: Spain, England, Iceland, Germany, and Italy. Additionally, other large-scale, planning-intensive trips include Florida and Puerto Rico. 

US English teacher Clare MacKenzie, who facilitated the Literary England trip, explained the thorough process that is required to ensure the trips run smoothly: “We started about a year [ago], thinking about what programs we could offer, how those would all fit together, and we put in proposals. As soon as this Intensive Learning is done, we will start thinking about next year and putting in proposals.” 

MacKenzie and US English teacher Debra Galler, who also led the trip along with Director of Technology Steve Kolaris, collaborated with Explorica to build the itinerary for students in the program. Explorica has pre-built tours that groups can register for, spanning a wide variety of locations spanning the continents of Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. 

MacKenzie and Galler were in a unique situation, given that Galler had experience administering this trip in partnership with Explorica. MacKenzie said that “[Galler] had done the program before, so she had a lot of specific changes to make it fit our literary focus. It’s just a lot of communicating with Explorica.”

History teacher Jackie Scully, who led the Historical and Cultural Tour of Germany trip, mentioned that her IL trip also used Explorica. The trip was focused on the history of World War II and the Cold War. Scully said that Explorica had a consultant who helped “book all of the hotels, airlines, and set up all the online platforms to do the payments. That went relatively smoothly.”

In March, the trip’s planning began to pick up to start preparing with the students: “We started doing meetings every one to two weeks at lunchtime to prepare the students. We would do presentations on the different places we were visiting.”

The IL trip that went to Spain, Spain: History, Language, and Culture, was directed by Spanish teachers Josefina Paolello and Robert Nasatir. As opposed to having a more specific focus like Literary England, this trip viewed Spain through the wider lens of Spanish culture. “It’s basically Spanish culture, historical sites, museums … It’s not just visual arts or literature, it’s … a little bit of everything,” Nasatir explained. 

Similar to Literary England, the Spain trip was organized in conjunction with an organization called Global Works Travel. Like Galler, Paollelo had experience working with this company to produce her IL trip: “This is my fourth or fifth trip with Global Works, so I know the owners in the sense that I have worked with them before,” she said. She added that her connection with Global Works has allowed her to personalize the Spain trip, particularly through providing opportunities for students to gain service hours: “The reason that I like Global Works is that it is able to provide service opportunities. It was really important to me that a language trip would include service.”

Looking back on her trip, Scully mentioned a few bumps in the road that she had encountered: “We had a little bump in the beginning with our tour director. You never know who you’re going to get. He was a great person, but in the beginning, it was kind of disorganized. It took myself and the other two chaperones to micro-manage and plan with him hour by hour. I would say after the first day we found a rhythm, and then it was really smooth.” 

Scully also noted the historical relevance of the cities her IL trip visited, and the impact this had on the students: “I think the students really felt an impact from the history of the trip as well. It was emotional at times, but everyone in our group did a good job of taking care of each other. There were times of tears, but there were also times of laughter.”

Scully continued, saying, “Overall, I’m really happy with it. I’m impressed with the group of kids. The students were amazing. The chaperones were great. Tweaks here and there with Explorica … the food was not that great. We took the more affordable route, and in Germany, that meant sausages for every meal. But it was successful, and I’m really glad we did it.”