Under the bright Panama sky, high school students construct a classroom for a school. They mix concrete while local school children twirl around on their newly made playground structures. As the students finish their volunteering for the day, they wave goodbye until tomorrow.
Student travel abroad includes service trips, which combine tourism with volunteering to help support communities and often include renovating schools and connecting with the community. The School the World and Global Learning Adventures programs host many service trips for teenagers during school and summer breaks. School the World partners with Brookline to allow groups of students to travel on these trips together. When students fly back to their hometowns, they carry with them not only a heavy suitcase but a range of new perspectives.
Senior Becky Winickoff traveled on a service trip to Panama in February of her sophomore year with the School the World program. Winickoff said the activities and interactions during her trip were valuable to her.
“I take Spanish in school, so I really enjoyed getting to talk to people in Spanish. That was definitely a really valuable part of the trip for me,” Winickoff said. “Playing catch and stuff with little kids was just really fun and a cool way to connect.”
Senior Ofir Williams has traveled on a service trip to Tanzania with the Global Leadership Adventures Program. Williams said he enjoyed teaching English in classrooms and playing soccer with kids there.
“Honestly, I wish we had more time at the school because part of the trip was cultural immersion as well,” Williams said. “We did other stuff, but I think definitely being with the kids was the highlight of my trip.”
Junior and president of the School the World club Remi Fell has gone on two trips to Panama with the program. During her trips, Fell said she connected with many children in local communities and hoped to empower young women there.
“It’s really important for the little girls to see us because, in their town, it’s very uncommon for them to see women doing [trade] work, and it showed them that they can do whatever they set their mind to, and they are able to help and make their town stronger,” Fell said.
Williams said he found the trip to be a very meaningful experience for himself and the community.
“I think the only hard part was honestly leaving the kids at the end of the trip,” Williams said. “They were very sad. They don’t see people from the U.S. or anywhere out of their community very often.”
Winickoff and fellow students worked together to construct playgrounds and classrooms for schools in the community.
“I think it was a really nice cohort of people that went, and I think in general, the people from BHS that are interested in service trips have pretty good intentions,” Winickoff said.
Fell said service trips have made her rethink her mindset at home.
“I think [I’ve changed] my outlook on material [goods],” Fell said. “I’m less materialistic because I feel like it’s less important based on what I’ve learned and what I’ve seen. I’m less wasteful I’d say.”
Winickoff said she is conflicted on service trips as a concept.
“I think they can have not great motivations behind why people do them.” Winickoff said.
Winickoff said service trips are a complex topic because they can encourage privileged teens to help a community. She said she thinks a better use of resources could be raising money or employing skilled workers instead of high school students.
“Who is the trip for? Is it for the people? Is it for helping them, or is it for the people to get this experience?” Winickoff said.
Despite the variety of reasons students attend them, Fell said she thinks service trips are still important.
“I feel like some people mainly do it for college or the way it looks, or to make themselves feel good about it,” Fell said. “But I feel people can actually open their minds up to different cultures and different lives in the world.”
