For some members of the Rivers community, spring break is a chance to catch some rays on a beach, or kick up one’s feet and relax at home. However, for many teachers and students, the time off this month will serve as a unique cross-cultural opportunity.

Over vacation, several Rivers groups will be embarking on trips all over the world to learn from and contribute to other cultures, whether artistically, educationally, or otherwise.

All of the Upper School performing groups will be heading to Italy for a week-long concert tour of venues in Milan and Venice. The trip, representing the music program’s first tour since heading to France and Switzerland in 2008, will include the Men’s and Women’s Choruses, the Jazz Choir, Chamber Orchestra, Big Band, and Select Combos I and II.

Also happening over break will be a journey to China led by Mandarin teacher Fred Kosak, who invited his students on a cultural exploration of the cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, and Shanghai. Robert McLarnon ’12, a student in Kosak’s Level II Mandarin course, is particularly energized about the trip after a presentation to his class in December by Kelsey Clark ’05, who coordinated a pen-pal exchange between Kosak’s class and her Chinese students at Hunan University in southern China. 

“I’m really nervous and excited for the trip, and the emotions are getting more intense as it gets closer,” McLarnon says. “I love travelling and foreign cultures, and look forward to seeing important cultural and historic landmarks within China.”

Lastly, from March 8 to 17, language teachers John Bower and Alaina Cotillo will be chaperoning 13 middle school students to France.  They will tour the many monuments and museums of Paris, visit Auvers-sur-Oise, climb Mont St. Michel, explore the D-Day beaches and American cemetery in Normandy, and finally take an excursion through the Loire Valley to visit three chateaus. 

Kosak says that he believes that all of the trips reflect Rivers’ commitment to making education multi-faceted and applicable to the world at large. "Rivers really promotes the idea of learning being an experience that extends beyond the classroom, and that explores other cultures' customs and practices," Kosak says.