Singing along to music on the top deck of a party boat with his grade, senior Noah Lobel was excited to be starting his senior year at JDS. The field trip to D.C.–which included pickleball, roller skating and a party boat–filled Lobel with anticipation for the unique senior events to come this year.
Every year on the first Friday of school, each high school grade goes on a community-building field trip. These trips intend to strengthen necessary collaboration skills depending on the grade, according to Tori Ball, Dean of Experiential Learning and Leadership and High School Math Department Chair. Part of the reason Lobel enjoyed this trip so much was because the grade was all together and bonding as a bigger group.
“The other grades don’t really get [the same experience],” Lobel said. The fact that we had a whole boat rented out for us was a good way to celebrate us being seniors.”
On Aug. 29 (the first Friday of this school year), the freshman class went to the Calleva low ropes course, the sophomores went to high ropes courses at Tree Trekkers, the juniors went rafting with River Riders in Harper’s Ferry and the seniors went to Kraken Kourts to play pickleball and roller skate, followed by a party boat trip at the waterfront in Georgetown.
While collaborating to help group members navigate through low ropes courses, freshman Eden Segal-Geetter, who is new to JDS this year, found plenty of time to bond with her grade. She especially did so during lunch when she was able to sit with a large group and talk to many people. Segal-Geetter found the field trip to be a great time to meet new people at the beginning of the year.
“I really enjoyed it, and just meeting new people, having that experience in the first week is something really good that the school does, because it allows a chance to connect with the grade like right off the bat,” Segal-Geetter said.
This year Ball went on the senior trip to DC, which she enjoyed because something that she loves about her job is that she gets to see the students have fun out of the classroom, and grow throughout their time at JDS.
“Over the course of high school, there’s a lot of really cool leadership opportunities for people outside of the classroom,” Ball said. “And so it’s been really exciting seeing people step up as leaders.”
Ball initially helped organize each of these community-building trips in 2021, with the addition of sophomores going to Tree Trekkers starting last year.
“The idea of having everyone go on a field trip the first Friday of the year in high school was actually Dr. Vardi’s idea, because she became principal in the school year where we first had our full return from COVID, and she felt like it was really important that we start that year returning from COVID with a lot of joy and with a lot of community building,” Ball said. “And so that was the first year that we went on these trips. And so we’ve always sort of asked ourselves, how do we build community and how do we cultivate joy as we start the year?”
The trip is also in place to help ease students back into school. Having a break to connect with one another is something that Segal-Geetter liked about the trip.
“The first week of school is definitely really difficult to settle into the flow of high school,” Segal Geeter said. “And I think it alleviated some of the stress, because you kind of get into a rhythm with everyone and everything through the trip, which I think is really cool, and it definitely made me more excited and also at ease about the next couple of months.”
