 |
|
|
|
|
Fremont seniors tour East Coast
First Lady of NYC welcomes local teens
By Natalie Ahn
Students and teachers from Fremont High School met with Fremont alumna Donna Hanover, wife of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, on Jan. 3, while touring the East Coast on a unique educational senior trip. The meeting took place at Gracie Mansion, the home of the mayor and his wife.
The trip, called Trip 2000, was first thought-up six years ago and, has been in planning throughout the Class of 2000's four years in high school.
We had originally planned to be in Times Square for the turn of the millennium, but that didn't fit into our schedule, and safety was a big issue with parents and the school district. We ended up welcoming in the new year at Battery Park watching fireworks over the Statue of Liberty.
"It was the longest and the shortest two weeks of my life," senior Ben Lazarus says about the trip. "When I left on the plane and when I flew back, it felt like no time had passed, but in hindsight it was just action-packed."
Hanover extended the invitation to Gracie Mansion during the last year of planning. Curator David Reese gave us a tour of the mansion, including some private rooms in the original 18th-century section, of the house, which are not usually shown to visiting groups.
Hanover met with the group before and after the tour, providing food and drink and talking with the students and teachers about her memories of Fremont.
"My four years at Fremont were just incredible," said Hanover, who was heavily involved with speech and debate and drama. She said that there were opportunities for extracurricular activities, and more importantly, she had teachers who encouraged her to go for what she wanted to do and to succeed. "Getting a good education is all about making your own choices," Hanover said.
The trip began when the 21 students and three chaperones flew from San Jose to Boston on the night of Dec. 26. Jet-lagged, we toured Lexington and Concord before checking into our hotel just outside the city. We spent two more days in Boston, walking the "freedom trail" and visiting Salem, site of the infamous witch trials.
New York City was our second stop. We saw everything from the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building to performances of Stomp and Rent on Broadway, as well as an Islanders hockey game.
We ate dinner at the new World Wrestling Federation restaurant in Times Square and another night in Chinatown, and fitted in plenty of shopping--including at Macy's, the world's largest department store.
We visited Philadelphia next, seeing such historic sites as Independence Hall, Congress Hall and the Liberty Bell.
Washington D.C. was the last stop, and we spent the remaining four days there. Highlights of that segment were visits to the National Cathedral, various war memorials, Arlington National Cemetery, and a day to run through the Smithsonian Institution museums. We returned to California on Jan. 8 and prepared to return to school two weeks ago Monday.
Two of our chaperones, teachers Ina Sakaguchi and Tim Shannon, are also the advisors for Fremont's class of 2000. They planned this trip from the beginning with a committee of parents and several student representatives in the Associated Student Body Leadership class. The committees worked with Gerber Tours to finalize plans, prepared the students for their two weeks on the East Coast, and fundraised to help with the trip cost. Students are still hoping to gain additional corporate sponsorship before the year is up to offset the remaining costs which the students still owed to the school.
"I thought the trip was great," said Sakaguchi. "Even though I felt confident that the students would be able to handle the trip and all the inconveniences, part of me wasn't sure. That was my biggest concern, that I would have to watch the kids and act like the chaperone instead of seeing the sites. I realized that I could stand beside the kids and see the sites too. I could be one of them, and I enjoyed it. And that happened right away, on the first day."
Natalie Ahn is a senior at Fremont High School.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
