Context Travel scholarship students experience and write about Europe
Travel bloggers of the future are being formed thanks to Context Travel’s Foundation for Sustainable Travel and the St. Hope Public Schools, in Sacramento, California, who have just announced the winners of their annual travel scholarship: senior Kaneisha King and junior Kathleen Snook. Says Kathleen:
We were given an incredible opportunity, and we are going to make the best of it. I have never been out of the country, and the idea of traveling to Europe and learning about a different culture, history and society was unthinkable until a few months ago.
Arttrav has always been happy to recommend Context’s high-level walking tours in Italy; I know personally many of the scholar-docents. Context also sponsored last summer’s arttrav Italy travel writing contest; the winner got a walking seminar in the city of her choice.
The two student winners of this year’s travel scholarship will go to Rome, Florence, and Paris with a chaperone. During their time in Europe they will be on a busy schedule of two walking seminars per day, learning about history, art, architecture and society. As part of the project, students will participate in a one-day writing workshop with travel writer Susan Van Allen and also be enrolled in a 12 week Matador U Travel Writing Program. Each student will be expected to keep a blog journal during the trip and prepare a final project, relevant to the trip, that will be presented to the school in August 2010.
The purpose of the scholarship is to give high-achieving high school students from economically challenged inner city neighborhoods the opportunity to travel abroad and work with professors from universities. Kaneisha and Kathleen were selected by a panel of judges comprised of teachers and advisors from Sac High and Context Travel. In preparation for the trip they have been following workshops, taking extra classes on art, history, and mythology, and honing their writing skills.
I think this is a great gift not only to the students involved but to their entire community and to the wider world. Context is giving Kathleen and Kaneisha the chance to see the world and tell their peers about it both in writing and in person after the trip. Travel writing is a way to digest one’s experience and may lead to an interesting career in this field, or “simply” teach the students clear communication skills that can be applied in any job. I really hope that they’ll post great photos (especially in Florence!) and have an unforgettable experience that will set their lives on a better path.
