Field Trips Galore!

Posted By: Julian Brenman October 28, 2015

If the corridors of Friends’ Central have seemed quiet and empty over the past couple of weeks, don’t worry; nothing bad happened. The seventh and eighth graders were on field trips! While the seventh grade was on their annual trip to Echo Hill Outdoor School, eighth graders explored the wonders of Washington DC.

Some of the activities the seventh graders participated in at Echo Hill were boating, swimming, zip-lining, hosting an outdoor “cook-out,” playing classic field games, and going on a night hike. There were other activities, but too many to name. Most of the previous grades that went to Echo Hill have raved about the Outdoor School’s famous home-cooked cornbread. An anonymous seventh grader admitted, “The cornbread was really good.”

Miss Sims, seventh grade science teacher and advisor, shared some information with me about her second time at Echo Hill. “It was lots of fun, and the students bonded nicely. Though it rained, we still had a good time, and did all the planned activities. In fact, the rain brought everyone closer together, and everyone helped each other out. We saw six or seven box turtles just walking around, and that was one of the highlights of the trip.” Sims said she is excited to go back next year. When I asked anime fanatic Skylar Davis ‘21 what she didn’t like about Echo Hill, she was speechless. “There was nothing I didn’t like about the trip. Everything worked out great.” Charlie Schwartz ‘21, newspaper writer, mentioned, “I liked the days at Echo Hill but not the nights.” He explained later that the sleeping conditions were “less than comfortable.” However, this didn’t stop him from having a good time.  

 

It would be fair to say we eighth graders also kept ourselves busy in DC. On our first night, we played air-hockey and went on a night tour of the city. This was very cool, because they got to see the monuments and famous scenes lit up. On the day following, we visited the Arlington Memorial Cemetery, the Korean War Memorial, the Unknown Soldiers Memorial, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. After a brief lunch stop at Union Station, we continued our day with a trip to the Capitol and the Supreme Court, and ended the day with a touching trip to the National Holocaust Museum. As the day turned to evening, we had a delicious, cafeteria-style dinner followed by a seminar about the legacy of leadership. We concluded our retreat with a visit to the exterior of the White House, a stop at the Air And Space Museum, and the National History Museum. Though it was jam-packed with work, it was just as jam-packed with fun. 

Principal Quinn ‘98 explained, “We have taken the eighth graders to DC or New York for a number of years, but it was always a day trip. Because it takes a while to get to both of those places and get home, all in one day, we always felt the activities were too squished, and we couldn’t do what we wanted to do. We looked for a place we could stay overnight. It was the Head of School, Mr. Sellers, who found out about the 4H Conference Center.” The Quinncipal illuminated, “Finding that place made it possible to do an overnight. It would be very difficult for 80+ people to stay at a hotel. The reason why we think DC is so great is because it fits in great with the eighth grade curriculum. I hope we will be able to take the trip again next year. Everything went according to plan, but we might choose to move around some activities because Monday was such a long day for both students and faculty.”

Eighth grader Lucas Desipio’s favorite part of the D.C. trip was the night tour. Anthony Cianfrani, eighth grade bike rider, rated the trip “an 8.5 out of 10.” Many students expressed there wasn’t enough “downtime” in DC. My favorite part of DC was learning about my nation’s history. I enjoyed both the DC trip that I went on this year and the retreat to Echo Hill last year. They are very different from each other, which makes it very interesting to embark on these new adventures.

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