Global Education
More than School Trips
In the Classroom
In the Classroom
Beginning in the fall of 2020, Dr. Brandon Gauthier, Director of Global Education, began working with the faculty to integrate global competencies into course work and global study programs. Gauthier frames his role as: “help(ing) Derryfield continue to conceptualize global education as about person-to-person connections…we aim for DS graduates to feel as confident speaking with Nepalese villagers as they do with peers in our immediate community.” As we look toward the future, Derryfield students will have growing opportunities to continue to engage with a rapidly evolving global landscape.
Community Education
Cultural Partnerships
Since not all Derryfield students are able to participate in global trips, Derryfield is establishing new partnerships to bring speakers to campus more regularly. Last spring, two speakers in Senegal joined the 9th grade class to host a workshop on contemporary Islam. Later in the year a speaker from Where There Be Dragons—an organization dedicated to engaging the “wisdom of community voices” from all parts of the world—addressed the DS community on how to “travel without traveling.”
Global Travel Opportunities
Derryfield offers a variety of global travel experiences every year to students in both middle and upper school. Our students have traveled to South Africa, Nepal, Dominican Republic, Germany, England, Vietnam, Washington D.C., to name a few!
Washington DC Politics and History
Grades: 6 – 8
This four-day program in our Nation’s capital will introduce middle school students to a wide variety of experiences. Final reservations are in progress; however, we anticipate highlights to include:
- Capitol Building
- Washington Monument
- Ford’s Theater Performance
- Museums (potential options: Holocaust Museum, Museum of African American History & Culture, International Spy Museum
Classics in Italy: Latin and Culture
Grades: 9 – 12
This new student experience in Rome and the Naples areas will serve to be an experiential and immersive cultural experience.
Highlights include:
- Orientation in Rome – Church of San Pietro in Vincoli (Michelangelo’s Moses), Capuchin Crypt
- Ancient Rome – Colosseum, Roman Forum Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio
- Modern Rome – Villa Borghese, Piazza Barberini, Campo di Fiori.
- Outer Rome – Gladiator School on the Appia Antica, Appian Way Bicycle Tour
- Inner Rome – Scavi Tour (under St. Peter’s Basilica), Pantheon, Sistine Chapel
- Naples – Certosa di San Martino, National Archaeological Museum
- Pompeii – explore excavations, Antiquarium, Vesuvius Herculaneum
- Capri – Blue Grotto Boat Tour
Evolving Landscapes of Southern Arizona
Grades: 9 – 12
In this experiential learning program in the Sonoran Desert, students will explore cultural ways of relating to plants, animals, water, and land, participate in outdoor adventure activities, and experience the culinary delights of the southwest. Through facilitated activities and workshops, students connect with local builders, farmers, and scientists to explore notions of stewardship, earth community, resource extraction, and development and will develop a nuanced understanding of the evolving landscapes of the American Southwest. Their experience will be supported and hosted by critical community partnerships, providing unique access to the people and places of the Sonoran Desert.
Highlights include:
- Tucson, AZ – Cooper Environmental Center: working with local organizations involved in food systems, such as Native Seed Search, Flowers and Bullets, and Las Milpitas; exploration amongst the incredible Saguaro forests
- Patagonia, AZ – Borderlands Restoration Network: learn about border issues and land conservation; visit important sites along the Nogales, AZ border, including the Border wall
- Ajo, AZ – in the heart of the Sonoran Desert and a historic mining town, which is now home to community partner International Sonoran Desert Alliance; stories from local cultural bearers of the Tohono O’odham; learn about traditional forms of agriculture
Musical Performance in Disney
Grades: Choral & Instrumental students in Grades 9 – 12
This performance-based trip is open to those students involved in one of the two US performing ensembles. The group will stay at the All Star Music Resort in Disney World, and as part of their four days at the park, will attend workshops and perform in concerts. The group will attend “Soundtrack Session” workshops, visit a professional Disney recording studio and work with industry professionals to record along with a film. This will culminate in a screening of their recorded work set to Disney film footage. Also while at the park, the ensembles will perform for Disney-goers on the Waterside Stage at Disney Springs. We will prepare for this performance throughout the year, and perform an entire Disney-themed set.
Habitat for Humanity
Grades: Students must be 16 or older by March 19, 2023
Entering our sixteenth year of Habitat for Humanity service, Derryfield students and chaperones will travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to spend a week building homes alongside construction staff and local volunteers. Aside from working hard and learning new skills, students will come home with a sense of satisfaction and appreciation for the need for affordable housing for working families.
South Africa Student Exchange Program
Grades: 9 – 10
This program has been suspended due to the pandemic. We will look at re-introducing it for the 2023-2024 school year.
The Derryfield School has developed partnerships with the Durban Girls’ College, a girls’ high school in South Africa, and Wynberg Boys’ School in Cape Town, South Africa. Two of our ninth/tenth grade boys and girls will have the opportunity to attend these schools and live with a host family for six weeks next summer. In exchange, the Derryfield students participating in this program will host a student from the South African schools for six weeks during the Winter term in New Hampshire.
