Twenty-three Turners Falls High School students are back on American soil after an overwhelmingly positive eight-day European excursion, marking the school’s first trip abroad in two decades.

The school’s Travel Club, assembled last school year specifically to prepare for a trip to Paris and Rome, spent March 10 to March 17 overseas. Megan Bendiksen, who leads the club and teaches French and Latin at Turners Falls High School, said spending four days in France and four days in Italy was meant to immerse students in other cultures and test their foreign language skills. The students — almost none of whom had ever traveled out of the country — took to the challenge in stride, Bendiksen said.

“I think overwhelmingly, they loved it,” said special education teacher Jessica Vachula-Curtis, who chaperoned the trip alongside Bendiksen.

Vachula-Curtis remembered “randomly chatting in the hallway” with Bendiksen in May 2021 when musings of a school trip abroad first arose. By then, the COVID-19 pandemic had limited people’s connection with the world for more than a year.

“It was just sort of out of this idea of getting restless and we were just like, ‘Do you think we could get a group of six to 10 kids to travel with us?’” Bendiksen said.

They committed to the idea, and soon, any lack of surety was turned on its head, with nearly two dozen students signing up for the trip. Out of this group, only three or four had ever traveled out of the country before, Vachula-Curtis said.

“I was thinking about some of our students, ‘Maybe they hadn’t even been to a big city before,’” Bendiksen added.

These students became founding members of the school’s Travel Club, which convenes weekly on Fridays. Here, Bendiksen and the students practiced their foreign language skills, bonded as a team and otherwise planned their trip.

“I think post-COVID, everyone was really ready to get out and explore,” Bendiksen hypothesized.

“I was all about it since I heard about it,” student David Stowe said, adding that a “life-changing” trip to Colombia sparked his wanderlust. “I love traveling and the idea of it.”

What few anticipated was the pandemic’s longevity. Plans to embark in March 2022 were delayed for a year as the public health emergency continued beyond what the club anticipated. Still, the students remained invested, ultimately boarding a plane to France on March 10.

In Europe, the club, paired with two other school groups from Texas, made their rounds to see major monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Circus Maximus and Pantheon in Rome. The more mundane aspects of being across the world were just as valuable, though, according to Stowe.

“It’s just kind of like looking into other people’s lives,” he said, emphasizing his appreciation for chances to engage with everyday utilities like public transit and the native language. “It makes you see that there’s more to the world than what’s around you.”

The less glamorous parts of the traveling experience also tended to be the most challenging, Stowe and the chaperones said. Hurdles the group fought to overcome included the fatigue of long flights, the shift in time zone, social overstimulation, trying new types of food and the language barrier. Communication in Rome was particularly difficult, as even Bendiksen had been a relative beginner-level speaker of Italian.

“We all had the common lack of Italian knowledge that kind of bonded us together,” she said with a laugh.

Weighing heavier on their minds was how it was a “typical, but also monumental time to be in Paris,” Vachula-Curtis recalled. While in the city, the group observed ongoing civil unrest surrounding the French pension reform bill that would increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.

“I think it really opens up your ability for empathy as well, which I think is so important to do early,” Bendiksen said of the value of traveling abroad.

“Knowledge is power,” Stowe added, “and it doesn’t hurt to know more.”

Overall, perhaps the trip’s greatest value was how it emboldened the high schoolers to recognize their potential, Vachula-Curtis argued. Aside from having some key itinerary items to provide structure to their agendas, students thrived on having the agency to explore independently as young adults.

“The trip wasn’t very linear,” Stowe said. “You split off into different groups and then get back together at the end of the day and talk about your different experiences.”

Looking into the future, Bendiksen “would like there to be a next time.”

“I heard from a lot of them, ‘I can’t wait to go back,’” Bendiksen said.

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.

]]>