Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
– Rumi
DCIS is an international school that nudges its students to be global explorers. Whether international, national, regional or local, travel is a key part of the DCIS experience. Besides having the time of their lives and creating memories that will last a lifetime, students take away from travel innumerable lessons that a classroom cannot provide in exactly the same way. The benefits educational travel offers includes:
Challenges perspectives. Getting outside their usual “box” can lead students to question their preconceived ideas and challenge them to open their minds around meeting their basic needs for food, water, shelter and connection — things they might otherwise take for granted.
Builds grit and confidence. Because they’re away from the comforts of home and their regular support system, students get to see what they can accomplish on their own. Having to figure out how to catch the train, get from Point A to B, communicate in a language other than their native one, manage unfamiliar currency, sleep in less-than-comfortable surroundings and work to get or make a decent meal all stretch students in new ways, leading to newfound grit and confidence.
Cultivates compassion and appreciation. Students come to view the world and humanity in a different way when they are exposed to cultures and ways of living that differ from their own. Travel can also lead students to realize how much they appreciate their life back home.
Improves academic performance. Visiting historical sites, eating food very different from what one is used to, watching a performance in a different language, calculating how much of an unfamiliar currency is needed for both dinner and transportation … all these hands-on experiences make learning exciting and fun in ways that no textbook can, leading student travelers to gain and assimilate knowledge far more readily than their non traveling peers.
Expands friendships. Students who immerse themselves in another country’s (or even another state’s) culture through travel, homestays and service programs learn how to break down language and cultural barriers and meet new friends they never would have known without traveling.
In short, educational travel helps students grow. And at DCIS, we want all our students who wish to travel to be able to do so. Our Travel Center offers a wide array of information on all kinds of individual and group trips, service opportunities, and hosting/exchange options and, importantly, myriad ways to fund them.
Develops financial literacy…
DCIS hosts a Travel Fair each year for parents, students and teachers from DCIS and other area schools. This free event features more than 20 vendors who provide information and answer questions on a wide variety of travel, language immersion, service and gap-year opportunities worldwide for students from elementary to high school.
Note: at this time the date of the Travel Fair has been postponed until we have further information about when travel opportunities may resume for our students.