Stories and Experiences
"While an adventure of a lifetime, it was also a journey into ourselves. One of our teachers captured the time so well when he commented, “This trip is like a retreat.” We wrote letters home, kept journals, and our students were challenged every day to leave their comfort zones.
Rewind to June 1995. My three best friends and I stepped off the Eurail train at Santa Lucia station in Venice, eyes wide with excitement, as the magic of a new city unfolded before us. We had been crisscrossing Europe for three weeks, hopping from Oslo to Paris and every stop in between, navigating unfamiliar streets with nothing but paper maps, a travel book, and the hope that we’d find a hostel bed at the end of the day. Our shoestring budget had us living off fresh market finds—breads, cheeses, and fruits stuffed into our worn-out backpacks. Not one of us carried a cell phone or pager, and the world wide web was accessible only through a dial up modem with its grinding, static-filled symphony of chirps and beeps. We had no email addresses. At eighteen, our only contact with family was the occasional call using a phone card at a pay phone or a postcard mailed from wherever we happened to be. The digital grid we take for granted today didn’t exist yet—everyone was truly unplugged.
Saint Mary’s Hall proudly announces a transformational $3,000,000 gift from the Jeanie Rabke Wyatt Family Foundation to support the School’s Global & Experiential Learning Program. The gift will provide access to experiential learning opportunities through student financial aid, support curricular programming, and endow the Jeanie Rabke Wyatt Director of Global & Experiential Learning position.
A little bleary-eyed after 5,000 miles of travel, our group of 27 students and 4 chaperones finally stepped off the bus in Oldonyowas, Tanzania, the site of our service-learning project. Nothing quite prepared us for what came next. An assembly of Maasai warriors, mamas, and schoolchildren greeted us at the door of the bus, taking each of us by the hand and leading our group into a kind of ceremonial circle. In just a few seconds, we were enveloped by bright-colored shukas, the sound of chanting, and the beat of rhythmic dancing.
Summer is a time of relaxation, fun, and vacation. The break also offers exciting learning opportunities outside of the classroom, and at times, these adventures lead to exotic and inspiring locales. For Saint Mary’s Hall biology students, the opportunity to participate in the 2021 Marine Science Trip led them to the picturesque Big Island of Hawaii.