Widdifield students take in Europe

Story and photos by Taylor Marleau/Special to BayToday.ca.

March break had finally come for the 45 senior students of Widdifield Secondary School eagerly anticipating their trip overseas to Turkey and Greece.

For 11 days the students enriched their cultural education from visiting the cascading domes of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul to the historic architecture of the Acropolis in Athens, accompanied by teachers Andrew Chouinor and Ted Gawinski.

This is far from the first time that Chouinor has travelled with students having this be his twelfth trip travelling the world alongside EF Tours, the world leader in international education for the past forty years expanding the educational horizons of students culturally and geographically.

“Visiting the same places doesn’t give you the same impact, but usually a different one. I don’t get the highlight of the Acropolis as much as I did now it’s different historic landmarks such as Hadrian's Library, you talk a lot about it and now you get to see the next level of things,” says Chouinor.

The trip has also been an experience of firsts for the students says student Jolene Walmsley.

“I have never travelled before, so I thought it would be good for my first time travelling to be with my friends, and a good farewell for our senior year.”

“Travelling to Turkey and Greece really opened my eyes, and you notice that back home we don’t have ancient ruins or historic landmarks that are that old.”

The grade eleven and twelve students of Widdifield are offered an Ancient History course that explores different historic from the ancient ruins of Ephesus to the story of Athens taught by Chouinor.

“I took the Ancient History course last year; it would have been better to have taken the course this year. But it still felt like ‘oh I learned that in school and now I’m actually seeing it’. Even if I didn’t take the course I still would have enjoyed the trip,” explains Walmsley

After travelling through three different times zones in one day, the students come back to Canada exhausted with the experience of a lifetime and countless stories to share with friends and family.

“One of the things that they did or saw, the experience to impact their lives whether they become better people or are just more motivated to learn. In general what it means to be a good person, in times of stress. As well to be able to tell the story of you on the trip to friends and family.” says Chouinor

Next March break Chouinor will be taking students to London and Paris for ten days and in 2014 will be in Rome and Southern Italy.