HC students are going on a trip to Europe this summer

This summer HC teachers Kevin Lentz and Tommy Craft are taking students from HC on an eleven-day tour of Europe, specifically the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Both teachers are experienced travelers with several European trips under their belts. Nine students have signed up for the trip so far.

“Nine isn’t bad, but we could take a couple more,” Lentz said in an interview about the trip.

The group will spend two nights in London, then Paris, then take an overnight train to Rome and spend the remainder of the eleven-day trip in Italy.

“We’re going to the Sorrento Region and visiting the Isle of Capri and Pompeii, coming back up to Rome and we’ll fly home,” Craft said.

The group will have local guides throughout the trip through EF (also known as Education First) a well-known company specializing in international education.

“I’m not expecting the [language barriers] to be too much of an issue,” Lentz said, “our trip guides will speak all the languages.”

One of the group’s most passionate students is Elena Andrews. The location she is most eager to visit is Italy.

“Not only are we doing Rome,” Andrews said, “but we are also taking a side trip to the coast where we are going to Pompeii. We are going to do a cruise around [some of the] islands.”

Andrews hopes she will see a lot of personal improvement from this trip.

“I have never left the country, so I do want to be a better traveler,” Andrews said. “I also want to have more cultural understanding.”

The coordinators of the program hope for the students to learn things that cannot be taught in a classroom.

“I think they’re going to get those real-life, first-hand experiences with other cultures, historical sites, the community as well as the comradery that you get from being on a trip with a group of people,” Lentz said. “Mostly, it’s that exposure to other cultures … that travel can give you.”