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/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 (Kathmandu). ASD also visited and delivered donations to an orphanage supported by ASD in Kathmandu, the “Save Blessing Child Home”. Following this, students visited the Chitwan National Park in Nepal’s Terai Region.
Thirty 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. 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 practise 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 which allowed students to practice their French in context.
Next years’ service trips will be bound for the Maldives, a conservation project working with the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, and to Tanzania and Nepal, working with ASD’s adopted schools and Corporate Social Responsibility Partners in those countries.
The Peninsula
