Every year, thousands of students and their educators look to Hemisphere to ensure their trips are fun, educational and truly like none other. We’ve compiled a countdown of the top ten trip memories from educators so far for 2018.
10. “Every year our Tour Director requests that we save our extras from Godfather’s Pizza so he can donate them to a food pantry when we get home. This year, there happened to be a food pantry right down the street from where we ate lunch, so Dan and our Principal walked down and donated the leftover food—it was so kind! Loved being able to spread kindness during our tour.” – Corinne from Illinois
9. “The people at the Shaw Festival in particular were absolutely fantastic! By the end of the first day it seemed like the whole town knew who we were and were shouting us out before the shows, which was so very cool.” – Carol from Louisiana
8. “School of Rock was great. Seeing Dear Evan Hansen was probably the highlight—meeting Ben Platt (the lead actor in Dear Evan Hansen.) Seeing Starry Night at the MoMA. The Met was also really cool as well as Central Park and Strawberry Fields. SoHo was safe and I felt comfortable letting my students go and explore that part of town.” – Matthew from Kentucky
7. “We enjoyed the school visit in Costa Rica as our students interacted with the Costa Rican students. Also, the animal rescue was informative and inspirational—next time we will be bringing donations.” – Gloria from Illinois
6. “Students who had never been to a Broadway show before were blown away. Those who had never been to NYC or Times Square before had a whole new world opened up to them. The events of 9/11 becoming more tangible to these young students was an incredible experience to witness. I was very impressed by all of the tour guides' ability to truncate the tour, yet make each stop along the way feel special and meaningful.” – Susan from New Hampshire
5. “The students had a wonderful time and learned a lot from the tours. They quickly related to the Freedom Riders because of the two rest stops on our way to Atlanta. They discovered that Dr. King was a real physical being who dedicated his life to ending social injustice around the United States.” – Safurat from Illinois
4. “The students always enjoy the movies and shows at the Presidential Museum. We visited the Old Capitol building this year and that was a treat! A student was able to read one of Lincoln's speeches in the Representative Hall, and I think the students got a real feel for the times.”- McKenna from Illinois
3. “We took time to find the grave of one of our student's great grandfathers at Arlington. We also had a student who had a relative who died at the Pentagon on 9/11 and had a moment of silence there. We also took time to find relative names on the Vietnam War Memorial wall and get etchings of their names. We were able to be flexible and do these things because of Danny’s hard work on our itinerary—it gave us flexibility to incorporate these personal touches!” – Janna from Arizona
2. “Two years ago, we went to the 9/11 Memorial pools/fountains and this year, we added the 9/11 Underground Museum—it took the 9/11 experience to a whole new level. Some of the kids were literally moved to tears. Also, I led a walking tour through Central park. We entered at E 76th and emerged at W 81st; right at the entrance for the Natural History Museum. The kids loved the downtime: watching the turtles, climbing on Alice in Wonderland, splashing each other in the playground fountain, sitting in the grass and eating ice cream, climbing on the rocks, etc. Lastly, they were in awe at Phantom.” – James from Illinois
1. “One highlight of our trip occurred while we were on the campus of Howard University. Our students were required to interview college students to determine why they selected specific universities and to gain advice on getting into college. In the process, we ran into two of our former students who then gave a personal tour of the campus. One of the students commented that, he too, attended a college tour years ago with our school to Howard and how it strongly influenced his choice in what school to attend. This was very powerful for our students because they were able to connect with these students and realize their own potential and possibilities.” – Angela from Michigan