Education First, otherwise known as EF, has been collaborating with Basis Independent Fremont for over three years. By collaborating with our school teachers, they have hosted countless term-project trips both around the US and internationally. Students have traveled to destinations such as Boston, Iceland, Canada, Austria, and many more places, and most recently, EF has brought our students to France and Japan. Every year, these trips are fully booked almost the moment they are announced due to the opportunities they offer for students to not only take a break from stressful work and hang out with friends, but also see and experience new things along the way.
For many students, it was their first time being away from home by themselves for so long, and through this, a lot of people managed to train themselves to adapt to being outside of their comfort zones. They talked to strangers, they ordered and paid at restaurants themselves, and they had a taste of what it was like to be an adult.
When asked, the chaperone of the trip, Mr. Ong, said, “I try to balance cultural experiences with free time because giving you guys free time to explore and investigate your surroundings allows you guys to become independent.”
For many students, this trip taught them the value of independence. Keith Li, a 9th grader, commented that the main takeaway he received from this trip was the importance of independence.
However, this independence can often be misused. Freedom, unchecked, simply becomes destructive. Without the checks and restrictions that parents impose on us, many of us became glued to our screens, and despite the best efforts from the chaperones, this problem persisted throughout the trip.
Despite many gains and fun times, the trip, like all, wasn't perfect. For example, living accommodations were a bit of a challenge for many members of the Paris trip. Our last hotel room did not have AC at all, and through the heat and the multitude of bugs, many students just simply couldn’t take it anymore. However, for others, the main concern was the bus driver.
“I really didn’t like the bus driver because he wouldn’t let us eat snacks on the bus.”, said Brian Guo (9th). Many students, like Brian, were adamant about this rule, and a few actually followed the rule.
Another concern for some was food. “Lunch was fine because we got to choose what we ate, but the set menus at dinner weren’t great.”, commented Keith Li.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the kids in Japan were feasting on what is universally agreed by the students on the trip to be ‘fabulous’ food. This, a result of Madame Laquidara’s persistent efforts with EF, has become a trademark in her trips. When asked, she said that the food options presented by EF have improved drastically since she began her journey chaperoning our trips 4 years ago.
Sean Li (10th), a familiar face who has gone to three EF trips, says that the only thing that could have improved the Japan trip was the removal of the curfew and a longer trip. However, that rule will not be going anywhere due to the legal risks associated with it.
Unlike Madame Laquidara, whose main concern was the food, Mr. Ong had a different concern in mind. Through his large amount of experience traveling in Europe, he became increasingly unsatisfied with the itinerary prepared by EF.
“Since I’ve lived in Europe for a while, I know that there are better places to go and to stay”, he stated. That is why he began to plan out his own itineraries.
These carefully created travel plans encompassed many different types of activities, from roaming one of the largest and most famed shopping centers in Paris to taking the treacherous cable car up Mont Blanc. These adventures gave everyone an all-round impression of France, allowing us to explore French culture while admiring its natural beauty. Instead of choosing to follow the preplanned itinerary, which often included hours of travel every day, he chose to spend time creating his own itinerary based on his experience in Europe.
Despite two different approaches to creating a fantastic trip for everyone, both Paris and Japan were all big successes, with many students giving eights and above. However, as we get older, homework will start to pile up, and many of us will not be able to attend these fun trips anymore. However, our amazing chaperones will continue leading these trips for younger students, creating even more memories that will likely last a lifetime.