What better way to treat a group of such hard-working students than a weekend trip to the Big Apple? On the morning of April 12, forty-eight senior National Honors Society students traveled to New York to experience all the culture that the city has to offer.
In the fall, NHS students voted for which city they would like to visit, and out of Chicago, Washington DC, and New York City, the latter won by a landslide. Danielle Pratt explains her partiality for the city. “I voted for it because I’d been to New York before, but I hadn’t seen a lot of places that I knew we’d get to see on this trip,” she said.
One of the purposes of the trip is to reward students for their year-long service. In order to be allowed to attend the trip, students were required to complete 20 hours of community service. As NHS is a group centered around character, scholarship, leadership, and service, students have needed to be respectful in their actions, keep their good grades up, and seize opportunities to volunteer their time in any way possible. The New York City trip, therefore acted as a reward for their actions. Secondly, the trip was intended to expand students’ cultural knowledge. No matter what city NHS travels to, Pompelia strives to find ways to further students’ understanding of culture.
Anyone can go to NYC time after time and experience more. Between the views from the tops of skyscrapers, to the beautiful parks, to the famous filming studios and unique ways of life, never a dull day is spent in the city. With so much to learn and see, NHS students knew this would be much more than just a fun trip.
Mrs. Pompelia collaborated with Mr. Krack, a native of NYC, to plan activities. “I had a general idea of what students liked and didn’t like from previous years. That’s how I chose the NBC studios tour,” said Pompelia. “I chose things I thought were educational and diverse and tap into different areas of interest.”
Students experienced unique yet classic aspects of the city including exploring the Museum of Natural History, visiting Central Park, seeing a Broadway show called “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying”, shopping on Fifth Avenue and in SOHO, traveling to the top of the Empire State Building, taking a boat ride to Ellis Island, and touring NBC studios.
“How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying is probably my new favorite musical!” reflected Jen Brown. Between the fantastic dancing, the hilarious songs, and the famous Nick Jonas, it was an unforgettable show.
Lauren Morlacci enjoyed the unique shopping that one cannot experience anywhere but NYC. “Their fashion is ahead of ours and it was really neat walking along the streets of 5th Avenue surrounded with such big stores,” she enthused.
Pratt explains her favorite site in the city. “Being on the Empire State Building was my favorite part because I’ve never been up there before and at night, it’s really pretty seeing all the lights down below,” she said.
While touring Ellis Island, Latrobe students discovered the historical processes involved in journeying to the New World. They recognized that many of their ancestors underwent these processes, and many were attempting to find out which of their relatives came through New York City. “It was fascinating actually seeing the place that my ancestors traveled through when they first got here,” said Drew Eline.
Pompelia believes the trip was a true success. “We were fortunate to have really good weather and our bus driver was amazing,” she said. “I thought our tour guide was well knowledgeable about the city and genuinely concerned with us having a good time.”
The last event of the trip was seeing the 9/11 memorial, which was Pompelia’s favorite site from the trip. “I thought our tour guide really brought it home with taking us to the 9/11 memorial,” she said.
Visiting the memorial was special for Tory Russo. “It was personal because I have a brother in the Army and he’s in Afghanistan right now,” she said.
Pompelia noticed the effect the memorial had on many students. “To measure of a trip’s success is to observe students feeling emotion and being impacted by what they’re touring. I witnessed that with the 9/11 memorial,” said Pompelia. “It made me realize that there was more learning going on there than could ever be achieved in a classroom.”
