Middle school students went on field trips Wednesday, Sept. 14 to help build their community and leadership skills. This was the second middle school field trip of the year, after the Lehman Day of Service trip during the first week of school.

Different trips were organized for each grade, each designed to help with certain skills that applied to that specific grade. The sixth grade went to Bar-T Ranch as they do every year where they did group team-building activities focused on cooperation. The seventh grade went to Sandy Spring Adventure Park to climb on the ropes course and then did community-building activities focused on supporting one another. Finally, eighth grade started the day with leadership activities before doing a scavenger hunt on the national mall.

“I think this was a good way to start off the year, with a lot of intentional focus on building community,” MS Experiential and Service Learning Chair Rachel Meytin said.

Even though the trips occurred in late fall, Meytin said planning began much earlier last school year to ensure all students would enjoy the trips. 

Science teacher and trip chaperone Nick Miller pointed out that a lot more than just the renting out of the venues goes into planning a trip like this.

“Renting the buses and making sure they came on time, we sent out many emails to the parents telling them their kids had to bring a lunch, making sure we had the medical kit and the list of medications: A lot goes into it,” Miller said.

Miller said that this field trip was “one of the two or three best” field trips he has ever attended. The kids worked together really well, had fun and learned valuable life lessons, all while making a good impression on the workers at the venue, he said

One such student who enjoyed the trip tremendously was sixth grader Maya Cohen. Despite the overwhelming majority of the activities being in the air, Cohen overcame her fear of heights and appreciated the trip a lot.

“I really loved it. I overcame my really big fears because I had to go on this really high swing and a ropes course which really scared me,” Cohen said. “I had a lot of fun doing it though and overcame my fears.”