GOING PLACES: ASD’s annual cultural immersion trip to Paris was again led by Sylvie Esrawee, assisted by ASD World Languages Department Head Robert Ogle. Students visited the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur and other notable landmarks — opportunities that allowed students to practice their French in context.
ASD pupils go on service, cultural and
language trips around the world
This past spring break, nearly 100 students and staff from the American School of Doha (ASD) participated in an ASD International Service Trip or on one of ASD’s cultural or language immersion trips.
Approximately 21 students accompanied by Steven Shantz, Marcia Jones and Megan Porter, worked at ASD’s newest adopted school in Kathmandu, Nepal. This year’s service trip renovated classrooms and built a perimeter wall for the Saraswati Secondary School in the Nepalese capital. These were needs identified by the school’s management authority as being critical for providing education to its students.
ASD also visited and delivered donations to an orphanage supported by ASD in Kathmandu, the Save Blessing Child Home. Following this, students visited Chitwan National Park in Nepal’s Terai Region.
Also, 30 students led by Diane Caristo, Trevor Dufresne, Michael Haddad, Caryn Pelletier and Camille Brown worked at the Bi Feng Xia Panda Sanctuary, a World Wild Life Fund (WWF) site in Sichuan, China on ASD’s conservation strand service trip. Students learned about panda conservation at the sanctuary which is the main quarantine point for pandas leaving and entering China.
This is the newest of ASD’s conservation strand service trips which allows students to work first hand with scientists and researchers in a field research environment.
ASD’s first language immersion trip was undertaken under the leadership of ASD Spanish teachers Ashely Maxon, Javier Covo Grande and ASD counsellor Aaron Hollingshead with students studying Spanish in Barcelona. Students spent the mornings undergoing intensive Spanish Immersion classes and afternoons exploring contemporary Spain, allowing them to practice their language skills in an authentic setting.
ASD’s annual cultural immersion trip to Paris was again led by Sylvie Esrawee, assisted by ASD World Languages Department Head Robert Ogle. Students visited the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur and other notable landmarks — opportunities that allowed students to practice their French in context.
ASD’s international experiences are undertaken in support of ASD’s commitment to foster opportunities for students to become positive, active, global citizens. The ASD International Service Trips have grown since the first service trip to Tanzania in 2008, to a programme which includes trips with either a humanitarian focus or a focus on environmental conservation. Alongside this, the cultural and language immersion trips, sponsored by teachers in ASD’s World Languages Department, further support this goal. These trips now move close to 100 students over school breaks and rely on staff and faculty volunteers who work with students over school breaks.
