The summer following either sophomore or junior year, St. Andrew's Upper School students are required to spend at least two weeks living away from their families in an environment that is dramatically different from their daily surroundings. This requirement is called the Junior Experience.
We believe the rigors and challenges of this program teach humility and compassion, hone leadership skills, build confidence and character, and instill enthusiasms that last a lifetime. St. Andrew's requires these experiences, hoping they will serve as vital stepping stones, necessary shifts in perspective, and windows opening onto different worlds.
The school provides several options that fulfill the Junior Experience requirement; but students may also design their own experiences. In either case, each student submits his or her own independent proposal to the faculty. Each year, details of school-sponsored programs, together with accompanying brochures, are announced to the student body in the fall.
To learn more about the history and philosophy of the Jr. Experience, go here.
To learn more about specific trips, click the Current Trips tab.
As the Junior Experience is a unique graduation requirement, community service hours that may be completed during a student’s trip will count towards the completion of the Junior Experience graduation requirement only. They will not be counted towards the 100 hours required for the Servant distinction.*
On Junior Experience trips with a service component, as in all other activities at St. Andrew's, a student's exemplary service to others will be considered when the faculty determines the recipient of the Scott Field Bailey Servant Award presented at graduation.
* The first class that the new policy affects will be the Class of 2013.
SCHOOL-SPONSORED JUNIOR EXPERIENCE TRIPS FOR SUMMER 2012
THE APPLICATION PERIOD BEGINS SEPTEMBER 29. ALL APPLICATIONS ARE DUE OCTOBER 11, 2011 TO THE TRIP LEADER OF YOUR 1ST CHOICE TRIP.
Please note that certain trips are always offered biennially, and no trips are guaranteed to be offered annually. Please consult with trip leaders if you'd like to plan travel for future years.
Paris, Arles, and Pont-Aven:
Drawing, Painting and Photographing France
June 2- 17, 2012
Cost of Trip: $4800
Leaders: John Pomeroy, Chris McCoy, and Courtney Itson
Number of Students: up to 15
Art students and non-art students (who enjoy art and would like to be able to draw and paint) are invited to immerse themselves in a total art experience. Participants will paint, draw and take photographs in locations where famous artists worked (Paris, the art capital of the world; Arles, home to Vincent Van Gogh, and Pont Aven, Brittany, which Gauguin adored). Your artwork will be critiqued and you will attend art lectures by professional artists, visit art schools and museums in each location. Travelers will spend time in small towns and villages to understand French culture. Since this trip is a working trip for artists, students must be willing to spend many hours each day painting and drawing. Visits to museums will be longer than typical tourist visits. You will keep a sketchbook and journal to record your experience and have as a keepsake. Students will also to grocery shop, prepare group lunches, and make dinner arrangements for the group. John Pomeroy, Chris McCoy, and Courtney Itson will lead the trip. Space is limited to 15 students. Cost: $4,800 (Includes round trip transportation from Austin, all meals, transportation, accommodations, art supplies, museum and cultural activities, *Final cost will depend upon number of travelers and final arrangements). For more information, please contact Courtney Itson (citson@sasaustin.org).
South Dakota and Sioux Indian Reservations
June 2012
Cost of Trip: $1200.00 (includes transportation, lodging, fees for activities, and meals)
Trip Chaperones: Rob Leacock and Hur-Shiu Webb
Number of students: 8-12
St. Andrew’s, in its commitment to challenge and encourage students mentally, physically and spiritually offers a Junior Experience Trip to South Dakota and several Sioux Indian Reservations.
The purpose of the trip is to provide students an opportunity to explore the history and evolution of Native American culture and identity within our predominantly Anglo-American Culture as well as see firsthand what life on an Indian Reservation is like. Students will encounter the intersection of Native American Culture and the students’ own Western Culture with all its complexities and contradictions. Students will also experience a third and unique culture of the Indian Reservation.
The trip will also include attendance at The Niobrara Convocation convened by the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. As a part of the Sioux Reservation Culture, the Episcopal Church has historically been a significant aspect of Sioux Religious identity. However, students will be able to see an understanding of the Christian and Episcopal identity in a unique context, one that has come to accept and even embrace Native culture and Native religious expression into the life of the church.
Visits to cultural events such as pow-wows and Sundances will allow for unique glimpses into Native American efforts to claim and preserve their own ethnic and spiritual heritage and identity. We will also have ample opportunity to encounter individuals who will share their own personal stories about their Indian identity and life on the reservation. The trip will also include a few days of cultural sight-seeing in the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazyhorse, the Black Hills, Wounded Knee and Rapid City. There may also be incidental service opportunities according to both need and our schedule.
Ultimately, this trip will offer to students a chance to encounter a culture that is: historically complex; both American and Native American; separate and distinct yet extraordinarily welcoming and eager to show hospitality; poverty stricken yet overwhelmingly generous; stricken with challenges and difficulties few of us face and yet is full of joy.
This trip is for anyone eager to learn about this unique and rich culture up close. The trip will largely be a group experience in almost every respect. In addition traveling and working together, a group book study and daily debriefing sessions, we will be preparing our own meals together and lodging together (according to gender). This trip is for anyone willing and eager to work as a group. Our food and lodging will be humble. We will also be far from the comforts of technology which we enjoy. So this trip is for anyone cheerfully willing to “rough it” for two weeks. For questions contact Rob Leacock rleacock@sasaustin.org.
Nepal
Service, Culture, and Trekking
June 11-July 4
(travel dates subject to minor change)
Cost of Trip: $5000
Trip Leaders: Lisa Culbertson and Nathan Michaud
Number of Students: up to 13
Pack one bag and come with us to live and trek the Everest region of Nepal! According to the World Bank, Nepal is the 12th poorest country in the world. While the overall poverty rate is declining, nearly one quarter of the population still lives below the national poverty line of $1 per day. Nepal is committed to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to tackle extreme poverty. One of the goals is to achieve universal primary education. Partnering with Edge of Seven, we will start in Chiwang, Nepal, a village of 300, to help build a new school for the community.
In Chiwang, we will be living and eating with Nepali families. Students will live in pairs at each host family. Living conditions are extremely basic and students will be expected to embrace Nepali living and working conditions for a few short weeks. After working alongside the residents of Chiwang, we will meet our porters and guides (mostly Sherpa people residing in the area) to start our trek on the Pikey and Dudhkunda Cultural Trails. We will stay in boarding houses for trekkers or with families in the villages we visit. When we stop in each town we will have opportunities to experience cultural and Buddhist ceremonies or just rest after a long day of hiking. A highlight of the trek will be climbing to the top of Pikey Peak for a view of Mt. Everest and many other peaks above 8,000m. Bring a camera!
The cost of the trip is approximately $5,000, depending on the number of travelers and the price of the plane tickets at the time of purchase. The cost includes airfare, housing, all meals, porters and guides on the trek, local transportation, and full time ground support provided by Edge of Seven. The cost does not include medical insurance, travel insurance (required), visa and passport fees, vaccinations, tips, and personal expenses. The trip is limited to 13 students. For more information, please contact Lisa Culbertson by phone at 512-299-9741 or by email at lculbertson@sasaustin.org.
Nicaragua: Community Service Trip to the Back Waters
JUNE 8 -- 25, 2012
Cost of Trip: $2700
Trip Leaders: Richard Kriese, Josh Nelson, and Caroline Pinkston
Number of Students: up to 12
St. Andrew’s faculty lead this community service trip to Central Nicaragua where students will live in two tiny hilltop communities helping to build schools and staff rural one-room schoolhouses. Our trip begins in beautiful Granada, Nicaragua where we will learn about the social and economic issues effecting life in rural Central America and stage our next move into the interior. While in Nicaragua each day will have intensive conversational Spanish-language instruction to improve our conversational skills with our student hosts. While in the interior we will live the simple lifestyles of the villages around Rio Blanco in Central Nicaragua. Completely off the electricity and internet grid, we will live and work in the schools we are helping to build. This trip is only for the adventurous and is to a rugged and remote area of the world. Students will need modest physical strength, the ability to carry all their possessions in a backpack and be ready to expand their perceptions of the world.
When in the interior villages each student will teach their own pre-designed lesson plan on subjects rarely experienced by rural poor like art, music and physical education. Each day will also include hikes, cooking and other cultural engagements with the poor people of Nicaragua. Weekend excursions include a trip to a surf camp on the Pacific Coast for lessons, visits to the beautiful colonial city of Granada as well as to exploring the low altitude forests around Cerro Musun. Our students are placed in situations that allow them to examine their own country, culture and society as well as the world at large through the eyes of the Central Americans, allowing them to develop a more objective, analytical understanding of their place as Americans in the larger global setting. Cost will be $2,700.00. This includes round-trip travel from Austin, all books and tuition for Spanish classes, three meals per day, laundry, museums, excursions, and cultural activities. The trip will accommodate up to 12 students. For more information, please contact Richard Kriese (rkriese@sasaustin.org).