ICGL
COSTA RICA June 13–20 In the Lower School, the ICGL strives to foster awareness of global issues among students, and the second annual fifth-grade study tour seems to have accomplished that goal. For a week, 19 students plus faculty advisors ROBBI HUDGINS, REBECCA RHODES, BARBARA SCOTT and VONDRA VRIELAND lived in an ecolodge in the Chilamate region of Costa Rica where, in partnership with World Leadership School, they participated in service work and explored food, the ICGL’s 2015–2016 global theme. Activities included interacting with local school children, participating in an elementary school’s English festival and painting a community amphitheater. The group also ventured into the rain forest to zip line through its dense canopy, learned about chocolate making, sampled native fruits and vegetables and visited an organic farm. It was an eye-opening experience for the students as many had never traveled without their parents or visited a developing nation. “I now know how it is not to have clean water from the tap and not to have air conditioning in 90-degree weather,” says sixth-grader SHEZA MERCHANT. For sixth-grader BRIAN LEE, Costa Rican culture stood in sharp contrast to life in America. “Costa Rica is such a happy country,” Lee says. “In Costa Rica they do quality over speed, but in the U.S.A., we pride speed over quality… I learned that when you have quality over speed, you take your time and do great things. When you do speed over quality, you are prone to more mistakes.”
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KnightTimes | Fall 2016
CAMBRIDGE July 21–30 “I want the Pace community to know that you can have the best time of your life while working for people in need at the same time. I think that many of the world’s problems could be solved by a group of fifth-grade kids because I experienced it myself.” — Sixth-grader OWEN ROSS
For nearly a decade, Upper School students and history department chair TIM HORNOR have crossed the pond to participate in the Society of International Business Fellows program on money and financial responsibility. Throughout the program, held at Cambridge University and led in part by former Pace parent NICHOLAS HOFFMAN, students engaged in lectures covering topics such as the ethics of money, sustainable development and why Shakespeare matters. In addition to their academic work, students spent time sightseeing in London, punting the River Cam and learning to play croquet.