Project 6: East Coast College Trip

Narrative

Every year, Ánimo Venice Charter High School hosts Spring Break college trips for our students. It has become the norm to host the college trip to the East Coast every two years, meaning it was time for it this year. The planning for this trip started in October. On October 3rd my colleague, administration, and I, hosted a general information meeting for all parents who might be interested in sending their students on any of the trips. We also host a Northern California trip and would potentially host a Southern California trip if there was enough interest. From this meeting in October, we are able to determine who is interested and start planning accordingly.

Once I started to get a good sense of who was interested in the East Coast trip specifically, I started to plan all aspects of the trip. I identified 20 students and had a parent information meeting with those parents on December 11th. I was in charge of payment schedules, the entire budget of about $30,000.00, and planning all aspects of the trip. Once contracts and deposits were in, I started to book each individual airline ticket, hotel, special sightseeing event, and college tour experience.

I market this trip as part educational and part cultural, so I want my students to learn about the specific universities we visit, but also to enjoy the rich culture that the cities have to offer. We visit Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, so each of the cities have a lot to offer. I scheduled a couple more meetings leading up to the trip in order to update parents on the progress and remind them of important things they would need to do to plan. I hosted a student meeting on February 13th in which we reviewed specific information that I asked them to research specific information about the universities that we would be visiting. I hosted the final parent meeting on March 13th, where I reviewed in detail the entire trip. You can see the itinerary linked on the bottom of this page.

Reflections on Leadership

In terms of logistically planning on my part and the overall experiences that we were able to offer to the students, I feel that this was the most successful trip that I have ever planned. We visited a very good mix of universities and had diverse experiences at each of those, from meeting with the official admissions officers, to meeting with student groups, to sitting in on college classrooms. I also felt that I had a great team of teachers with me on the trip, which I felt it very important to have.

Unfortunately, this year I was also presented with more specific student issues on the trip than I ever have been. There were a couple of boys who ended up coming on the trip whose behavior I questioned before even leaving. The boys were very excited about the trip and their parents really wanted them to attend. Technically, I could have left them at home because they broke some minor infractions (detentions and attendance issues) leading up to the trip, however I did not want to deprive them of the opportunity, especially because they had been making their payments and wanted to go. I intervened with parents a couple fo times and reviewed my expectations. On the trip, I struggled a bit with those boys to keep them on task and focused. We did not have any major issues, however I did not expect to have to re-direct them as much as I did while visiting some of the most prestigious universities in the country.

Upon returning from the trip it was also brought to my attention that there was some inappropriate and unwelcome behavior by another boy towards a girl. Upon some investigation by myself and school administration, all parties were contacted and consequences were appropriately handed out. From this I learned that it is extremely important to be diligent and strict at all hours, however teenagers are at an age where they still may do some things that are beyond the control of adults. This was also a learning experience for the students involved because their failure to follow simple directions and rules led to them being in a situation that could have been much worse. Luckily, nothing too serious happened, but it opened my eyes to the possibility of other things happening, especially since we were in Boston very near the areas of the local tragedies. I am reminded of how much trust is needed to be a leader, but also how vulnerable people can be when things happen beyond their control.

In the future, unfortunately, I think I will have to be more strict with who is actually able to attend. In the past we have never had issues, so I was very trusting. In future, I would also like to figure out a beter system for paying for the trip. The funds come from the families, however payments are made to the school and I pay for items using the school's credit card, which is very difficult to do. I have proposed the possibility of the district giving me a budget or account with which to work from specifically for this trip once I know how many students will be coming and how much it will cost each of them. In all, this was a great experience for our students and for myself as a leader.

CPSEL Standards

Standards 1.2, 1.3 - Part of our school's mission is ro prepare students for college. It is a well known that we take students on trips, so I did not have to develop that vision, per se, however I met standard 1.2 by planning and implementing this trip around that vision. I also met standard 1.3 because I was in charge of allocating all resources and making all of the payments for everything on the trip. I had to leverage some of the contacts that I made and was able to get various meals hosted to cut costs.

Standards 3.2, 3.3 - I fulfilled standard 3 by handling all of the management, operations, and logistics for the entire trip. I set up a system of payment, created a structure of regular meetings and reflections leading up to the trip, and also set up evening reflections while on the trip to discuss the issues of the day and what students had been learning. All financial matters came directly through me and I was in charge of reporting spending back to my administrators. (see finances below).

Standard 4.2 - I met standard 4 by strengthening the partnerships that existed between our school and the partner universities. I was in constant communication with, not only some of my former graduates who currently attend some of the schools we visited, but also with admissions personnel who will be visiting our school in the future.

MORE?!?!

Supporting Documents

Here is the complete East Coast Trip Itinerary that I shared with parents and students and that myself and fellow adults on the trip used. All of the planning I did comes together here.

Here is the Budgeting Tool that I used to keep track of all spending.