Travel opportunities slowly open again

The 2022-2023 school year marked the return to in-person learning full-time and unmasked. The Covid-19 pandemic created many obstacles and canceled countless trips, field trips, and extracurricular labs. 

Chris Corpus, choir director, is one of the teachers taking her class on a trip. Corpus viewed the pandemic as a time to grow. 

“We’ve all changed a little bit,” Corpus said. “We appreciate more. We are excited to be able to perform and be together”

All the choir classes, alongside the orchestra, were given the opportunity to travel to New York during the 2023 spring break. Being able to travel is an exciting time for the classes. 

“It’s a great opportunity,” Corpus said.

The only pandemic complication that Corpus expects to see is possibly having to wear masks in some of the buildings.  

Corpus most looks forward to taking students who have never been to New York.

“[My favorite part of traveling is]  showing them the city,” Corpus said. “It’s that initial ‘Woah’ look on their faces”

Another club that experienced disruption in their travel plans was Girls in Stem led by Emily Telford. Their trip to Iceland in the summer of 2020 was canceled, leaving Telford “heartbroken.”  

Senior Megan Hughes has been involved with Girls in Stem since her freshman year and is now the Vice President.

“I was always fascinated with science and math and thought it’d be a good club to join,” Hughes said.

Hughes was signed up to go on the 2020 trip to Iceland.

“I was upset [that it was canceled] as it was going to be a great opportunity that I would have loved to experience,” Hughes said. 

Summer of 2024 is the new timeline for the trip.

 “I am hoping no pandemics occur,” Telford said.  She will be taking the club to Costa Rica. 

“We will be learning a lot about the ecology of rainforests,” Telford said.

Even if the pandemic is getting easier to navigate, there are still some bumps in the road. In addition to being the leader of Girls in Stem, Telford also teaches some of the biology classes, including anatomy. Due to the pandemic, some of the simulations and clinics that classes were once able to go to have not been accessible. 

One such clinic is the visit to Carle BroMenn where anatomy classes are no longer able to visit for observations in the post-pandemic world.

“Which is not great because that was a really cool experience,” Telford said.

Nevertheless, in the near future, many students will find themselves traveling once again. 

“[I am looking forward to seeing students] surrounded by neon lights and people,” Corpus said.