George School’s Global Service Program launched its second set of international service trips in China and Cuba on June 24 as participants representing fourteen schools in nine states departed for the two countries. Introduced in the summer of 2009 to enhance the scope and quality of international service trips for secondary school students, the Global Service Program includes student participants for the first time this year, among them seven George School students. The 2009 service trips were open only to faculty at secondary schools. This year’s trip participants include nine teachers, three administrators, and twenty-one students.

“We are pleased to build on the success of last year’s faculty trips by including students this year,” said Pauline Forest, director of the Global Service Program, who is taking part in the trip to China. “I am confident that the service-learning opportunities in China and Cuba will be truly transformative for the students.”

Prior to spending two weeks performing service in China’s Sichuan Province to help rebuild Zhongba, a rural village that was significantly affected by a 2008 earthquake, the fifteen members of the China trip crossed paths with a gathering of the recently formed George School China Parent Association. The two groups visited the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, considered a twenty-first-century world’s fair, on Sunday, June 27.

Rising George School senior Sandy Chen is a member of the China service trip, which takes place in her home country. “I have a friend who was in the earthquake area when it happened,” said Sandy, referring to the 2008 disaster that affected the region in China where the group will do service work. Sandy recalled that when she first learned of the Global Service Program trip, she thought, “This is the thing I have to do to help those people, because I think that’s my responsibility as a global citizen and a Chinese citizen.”

Sandy said that her mother planned to attend the Expo in Shanghai with the George School China Parent Association. During its 184 days, the Expo is expected to attract 70 million visitors to its two square miles of pavilions and exhibits representing 189 countries and 57 international organizations. Tickets to the Expo were donated to George School by China Parent Association President Qi Gao, parent of 2010 George School graduate Tony Gao and chief engineer of the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, which designed much of the Expo site.

Thousands of miles away from the events in China, the Global Service Program trip to Cuba is bringing eighteen faculty, students, and administrators to Holguin, Cuba, from June 25 to July 10 to help with children’s programs and maintenance at a Quaker church.

“I can’t believe George School actually goes to Cuba. That’s so impressive,” said trip participant Shannon Jenkins, a 2010 graduate of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Mississippi. Shannon, who plans to major in Spanish at college, said she was drawn to the trip because she has found that opportunities to travel to Cuba are rare even among college study-abroad programs. She said she looked forward to the cultural and language immersion that the trip would provide.

George School’s tradition of service in Cuba began in 1978 with exchange trips involving George School faculty and administrators, and adults in the Cuban Quaker community. In 2000, when educational travel to Cuba became easier, the school began sponsoring student service projects with the Cuban Quakers. Those trips ended in 2004 due to U.S. government travel restrictions. The 2009 Global Service Program resumed George School’s service in Cuba thanks to a new travel license from the U.S. government.

William Chism, a rising senior at St. Andrew’s who is also taking part in this year’s Cuba trip, said that the program will help him to fulfill the requirements of his school’s certificate in global studies, which he has elected to pursue. William said he was particularly interested in learning about Cuba’s political and social environment, and was impressed with the three days of training workshops provided at George School for Global Service Program participants prior to their departure. For William, the workshops led by George School history teacher Fran Bradley, who has traveled to Cuba thirteen times, helped him to better understand the realities of Cuban citizens’ lives. “Embargoes and restrictions so harshly impact the day-to-day lives of those people,” William said.

The Global Service Program trip to Cuba is led by George School Spanish teacher Molly Stephenson and by Karen Washington, director of multicultural affairs at Moorestown Friends School. The China trip’s leaders are George School science teacher Steven Fletcher and Newtown Friends School science teacher Kevin Davis. Trip participants come from California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. An additional four participants took part only in the on-campus workshops, representing schools or educational organizations in New Jersey, Utah, and Washington DC.

You can read more about the Global Service Program's 2010 trips in the following article:

Bucks Local News
"George School Global Service Trips Depart for China and Cuba"

About George School
Founded in 1893 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), George School, a rigorous coed boarding and day school for grades nine through twelve, educates students from twenty-one states, thirty-four foreign countries, and a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, and economic backgrounds. Through its commitment to diversity and the Quaker values of equality, integrity, and peacemaking, George School inspires students to be led by their own truths while respecting and appreciating opinions and beliefs different from their own. George School was one of the first schools in the United States to implement an International Baccalaureate diploma program. For information about admission, please call 215.579.6547 or visit http://www.georgeschool.org.