Back in September 2019, El Camino High School’s (ECHS) Spanish and video arts teacher Daniel Britton started making plans to take more than 40 students on an 11-day tour of Spain during spring break.
It would have been one of the first times that ECHS students traveled to Spain as part of a school-sponsored cultural enrichment program. Although the coronavirus outbreak has caused the cancellation of the trip, Mr. Britton remains hopeful that his students will be able to take part in this experience next year.
“I lived in Madrid for more than two years; my whole dad’s side of the family is from Spain, so I have a strong personal connection to Spain,” said Britton. “Travel in my opinion is just one of the most important aspects to personal enrichment.”
The Spanish teacher and his students had originally planned to visit Barcelona, Valencia, Cordova, Sevilla, Costa del Sol, and the capital of Madrid under the auspices of the Education First travel company.
While having to put the trip on hold is disappointing, Mr. Britton said it’s unlikely that his students’ desire to explore the world and apply their language skills will diminish anytime soon.
“When I first got to El Camino, I taught Spanish and saw there were no opportunities to travel. There were no opportunities for students to apply their langue or make any kind of connection to the culture, so there was a need and a demand there.
“My first year of teaching I took about 18 junior high school students to Spain to do a student exchange. . .and it’s a very rewarding experience when you watch students come back to their home country and change; they change their perspective. They embrace different cultures. It’s a really rewarding experience.”
He said he is driven to try again next year because of his commitment to diversity, language learning, and the academic growth that he says happens with travel.
“These experiences are going to change their [students] lives, it’s going to give them opportunities to really look at college in a different way, look at career in a different way and hopefully enhance the relationship they have with their community and also with their personal growth.”