After much questioning over whether the 2018 Spring Break trip was really happening, the excursion to Europe is officially back on.

Each year an Annie Wright faculty member, normally Upper School for Girls history teacher Jeff Freshwater, runs a spring break trip to another country or part of the world based on student interest. A form is sent out, and students vote as to what place they would like to travel to.

This past year students voted to travel to Berlin, Prague, Krakow and Budapest. The trip is a total of ten days and allows students to travel through the Iron Curtain and World War II while getting to view Gothic cathedrals and ancient cities that are now more vibrant than ever.

The trip runs from March 24 to April 2, 2018. It costs a total of around $3,415 dollars, including airfare, hotels, meals, sightseeing tours, entrances and local guides.

Last spring the trip was originally to be organized and planned by Freshwater; however, after he discovered his wife’s pregnancy he had to cancel the trip. He realized the due date of that baby was in December and he felt it was not the best decision leave the child when he was only a couple months old.

Although he is excited to spend time with his new baby, he explained he was still very disappointed he couldn’t run the trip. “This itinerary was one I presented to the student body before, but it didn’t really generate a lot of attraction. That was one I really wanted to do because you when you travel you don’t often consider visiting those smaller countries. They are really overlooked, so I was really excited to see some of those places. I am very disappointed to not be able to go this year,” he said.

After announcing he couldn’t lead the trip many students were also disappointed, but social studies teacher Katherine Everitt stepped in and announced she could lead the trip. By that point a few girls began signing up and had already made the down payments on the trip because they assumed it would be happening, even though it had not been completely confirmed.

Unfortunately Everitt then found out that she could no longer lead the trip due to her prior commitment with the Model UN/Global Action activity, so the trip was then cancelled for the second time. This time, however, now that people had already paid for the trip, the company would not give them full refunds for the cancelled trip. Many were very upset about this, but fortunately Freshwater thought of asking Upper School Spanish teacher and dorm parent, Sarah Wenzlick, and she excitedly stepped in and agreed to lead the trip.

Wenzlick said she was very excited about the trip. “I am a huge proponent for student travel,” she said. “There is nothing better for showing a person how different the world is, especially for American students – just how huge the world is and how interesting our history and our culture are, then by getting out into it. My family is from the region that used to be Bohemia. They all migrated; half of them went to New Zealand and half of them went to Michigan back in the 1700s and so I’m really interested to kind of go back to these areas where they are from and learn a little bit more about why they left in the first place.”

Currently the trip has three students signed up and they need at least three more to sign up in order to run the trip. To enroll or learn more about this opportunity, visit this page.