Global Education

Global Trips and Intercultural Competencies

Whether learning from guest speakers from Afghanistan and Haiti, or studying the ruins of Ancient Rome in Italy, Global Education at Derryfield provides students profound opportunities for experiential learning.

More than School Trips

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.

Global Education News

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