Palmer Trinity School

The Significance of Global Connection "We are a traveling school." These words, from Dr. Manjula Salomon, Associate Head of School for Academics and Global Scholar, could not be more accurate about Palmer Trinity School. We believe that travel provides students a unique opportunity to explore different cultures and meet new people, both of which cannot always be obtained firsthand from within a classroom. In April, I attended the Global Connections Seminar in Muscat, Oman. Palmer Trinity School is one of forty schools worldwide that is part of Global Connections, an organization that encourages school leaders to promote international cooperation in their schools. As I connected with these leaders overseas, I was reminded of the genuine privilege of travel. It's something that often influences us throughout the course of our lifetime. When I was twelve years old, my family had a French exchange student, Annick, living with us in Connecticut. Though I was young, my mother let me travel to France and Spain to stay with Annick and her parents for the summer. It seemed like a good learning experience. Back then, we didn't have cell phones or email, just faith (and fingers crossed) that everything would be fine. Because Annick was much older than I was, she wanted to spend most of her days alone or with her own friends. I walked the beach daily and met young people of all cultural origins—German, Italian, and French—until one day on my daily walk I heard a family speaking a familiar language: English. I asked them if they were American. They said, "No, we're British." As a young child, it didn't matter to me where they were from; I was happy to hear people speaking my own language! For three days I met the Hillier family at the same spot on the beach. They were a family of five, and their daughter Sarah was my age. They bought me ice cream, and Sarah and I swam beneath the Spanish sun. Before they left we exchanged addresses, but I wasn't sure if I would hear from Sarah and her family again. Three years later, Sarah wrote to me with news that her family was traveling to the United States. They wanted to visit my home and meet my family. I turned to my mother and said, "Mom, some people I met on the beach in Spain are coming to America and want to stop by for a visit." You can imagine the look on my mother's face. In the end, she agreed, and the Hilliers came to visit. Thirty-five years later, my parents are still best friends with the Hilliers. We have been to all of their weddings and they have been to ours. They have been part of our lives in every way. It doesn't matter where they're from or what our DNA says, to us, they are family. I reflect upon this story as our students go to Round Square conferences, to Nicaragua and Haiti for service opportunities, and to other locations around the world. Through this network, our students have no boundaries. They are exposed to endless opportunities, from our own backyard to the deepest corners of the globe. These countries may be different in language, culture, and ethnicity, but we all share a passion for experiential learning and character education. Palmer Trinity School is part of the Round Square network. Round Square incorporates six ideals of learning: internationalism, democracy, environmentalism, adventure, leadership, and service. By traveling to countries near and far, our students receive an education that broadens their horizons, and contextualizes the content which they continue to learn in the classroom. The international travel that students experience through Palmer Trinity School creates memories and relationships that last a lifetime—something I know very well. My recent trip to Oman, like all travel programs abroad, left me with a flood of memories. The seminar took us to four schools in Oman: one Indian and three Omani. We traveled into the desert, where I spoke with other educators about building exchange programs with their schools. Surrounded by picturesque sand dunes, my passion for international travel welled up within me. When I returned home, I was happy to be in an environment that cherished the same global values: Palmer Trinity School. S U Z A N N E G O T T L I E B C A L L E JA A S S O C I AT E H E A D O F S C H O O L F O R C O M M U N I C AT I O N S A N D S T R AT E G I C PA R T N E R S H I P S M E S S A G E F R O M T H E E D I T O R 5 S UMME R 2018

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