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Trip of a lifetime

Solon Springs Advance Placement students know how to work hard.

The students in Lydia Lewis’ Advance Placement English literature and European history classes have worked odd jobs and sold pizza, carnations and raffle tickets for two years in an attempt to raise money for a trip to Europe this March.

Leaving at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and arriving in Rome at 7 a.m. Italian time, the 13 students and their 11 chaperones are visiting the cities of Rome, Florence, Paris and London.

All the students are juniors or seniors. They’ve had to come up with their own money for the trip either through fundraising or savings, Lewis said.

The students ran two pizza dinners during basketball games and sold items from catalogs, carnations for Valentine’s Day and Christmas wreaths.

Lewis even put Rent-a-kid advertisements in the local shopper for community members to hire students for odd jobs. The advertisement turned into the most profitable fundraiser for most of the students — who were willing to do any number of odd jobs to pay for their trip.

When a job would come in Lewis asked her students who would be available and willing to take it on.

They did all manner of jobs. They cleaned, raked and built a wall out of boulders.

Every student in the class, and most of their parents, raised money for the trip. They could choose how much or how little they wanted to fundraise on an individual basis. One student, Kate Klinzing, raised every penny to pay for the estimated $2,000 trip.

Other students’ parents are helping them with the trip and they’re using their fundraising money for spending money in Europe, Lewis said.

The students did a heroic effort fundraising for this trip, which is the most expensive field trip Solon Springs students have ever taken. The rising value of the Euro over the U.S. dollar is keeping the price of the trip high.

The first trip Solon Springs students took with EF Tours in 2003 cost $1,295; this trip is costing students $1,795 on paper, but with fees not listed on the main price the entire cost is about $2,000, she said.

A number of community groups also supported the students’ trip. Through donations of money and items for a raffle, the Solon Springs Parent-Teacher Association, Lions Club and American Legion all donated funds to help the students afford their trip, Lewis said.

These groups know the district cannot afford to help and that it’s the trip of a lifetime for these students, she said.

Besides fundraising, students need to have good grades, be enrolled in Advance Placement English literature or European history, have a track record of good behavior and hand in any work they’ll miss in order to go on the trip, Lewis said.

Only two of the students have traveled outside of the United States before this trip, and now they’ll all see the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and Tower of London among other sites, she said.

The trip isn’t just about sightseeing. Students going on the trip are required to research one place they’ll visit and write a paper about it. After the trip, they must add to their paper to explain how the experience matched up with their expectations, Lewis said.

“The whole point is it’s a curriculum connection, not just a random vacation,” Lewis said.

She centered much of her curriculum for the two classes around the trip.

Students are visiting Florence and will see Dante’s house, so during the year they read from his works. In England students are seeing the setting of plays and books they’ve read in school.
source:http://www.superiortelegram.com/articles/index.cfm?id=26492&section=news

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