Knightly News

Last Christmas, as junior Ella Stephens opened a gift from her parents, she never imagined that she would spend nine days of her summer in Greece. To her surprise, Ella’s parents gave her the gift of travel, and she joined 20 other Episcopal students and three chaperones on an incredible experience.

Travel Transforms

Students visited Olympia, the Acropolis, the Temple of Poseidon, the Saronic islands and much more. Trip lead, Upper School history teacher and self-proclaimed “history nerd,” Clara Howell says spending nine days in one country provided students “meaningful exposure to a culture.”  Ella says it was an experience she always wanted to have because she finds the history of Greece interesting. “I learned more in-depth what I learned in ninth grade,” she says. “We got to see everything.” Hearing that her students made those connections and appreciated the history of the ancient sites inspires Howell. “I’m more excited to teach it,” she says.

Episcopal educators view travel as an important component of a whole child education. “I do this because I think travel is important,” says Howell. “I’ve seen friendships form and students become more confident. It’s a transformative experience.” Ella recognizes her own transformation as a result of her time abroad. “After the trip, I was more open to trying new things,” she says. “I became more outgoing.” She says the experience also made her feel more independent because she was with teachers and classmates rather than her family. “It’s not as scary to travel now.” 

Sophomore and fellow traveler Ella Brien had a similar realization. “When I signed up for the Greece trip I was expecting the trip to be very history-heavy, and while we did learn a lot we also got to do a lot of super fun things too,” she says. “This experience changed my perspective because I had just learned about a lot of the places we visited in Ms. Howell’s class, so having that information made it so much more interesting!”

Travel Informs

With technology making it easier to connect globally, tomorrow’s leaders must be prepared to be part of a global workforce. With that in mind, Episcopal administrators have made educating students to become global citizens one of the school’s strategic goals. In addition to her role as Upper School Math Department Chair, Amy Rome has taken on the task of Global Travel Coordinator to help make this goal a reality. “Our goal is to have students achieve global competencies, and one of the ways to achieve that is through travel,” says Rome. She points out that a well-rounded program also includes classroom experiences, community service and experiential learning. Rome says travel experiences should be intentionally and strategically chosen to complement classroom learning. It’s a task she’s ready to organize after many summers of traveling to teach at an international boarding school.

Meanwhile, both Ella Stephens and Ella Brien hope to continue traveling. Ella Stephens is looking forward to a mission trip to Costa Rica with her family this spring and hopes to one day visit Italy. Ella Brien dreams of returning to Greece to see more of the islands and historic sites.

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.