WECHS Student's American Dream!
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Embarking on the American Dream!! This year our 9th and 10th grade students have the opportunity to visit New York City during the spring semester. However, they need help paying for their bus transportation to NYC. The itinerary includes visiting the Statue of Liberty, a Broadway show, the Museum of Natural History, Wall Street, Central Park, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, and hopefully a NY college. These students will travel via charter bus approximately 10 hours. Upon arrival, they will hit the ground running experiencing many of the sights and sounds New York has to offer.
The main objective of this trip is to give these students the chance to journey to a place that they would never have the funds or the opportunity to visit any other time. This year our students are studying diversity and the American Dream school-wide. They are exploring the world around them through self-exploration and reflection in World Literature class including their home county and the world beyond in World History class. Since New York has always been the epitome of the American Dream, from the immigrants seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time to the brave men and women rushing up those flights of stairs to save their fellow Americans on 9/11, our students will be to connect from books to life and Wilkes County to New York City.
Wilkes Early College High School(WECHS) students are extremely hard-working and dedicate themselves to our school with such veracity. WECHS students, who are 80% first-generation college-going, choose to come to this early college in order to challenge themselves to complete both their HS diploma and associate’s degree at the same time. Coming from a Title I school where the entire county is 100% free and reduced lunch, venturing outside of their county to a place like New York only seems like a dream. Most of our students are thrilled to come to school because they know there will be food supplied and staff that care for them waiting through the school doors. This opportunity would help our impoverished students align their world to the world that they study.
In search of the American Dream!! This year our student's completed a school-wide book read about the American Dream based on the book by Adam Shepherd, Scratch Beginnings. We have planned the 9th and 10th grade class trip around this theme. Living life through experience is something that our school takes very seriously and passionately tries to offer opportunities for our students. Studying the past comes alive when students are able to relate it to the impact it has on the present-day. This trip will only enhance what is going on in the classroom from World Literature and History and the study of the immigrants coming to New York in search of the American Dream.
Throughout the trip students will be completing self-reflections and later presenting to their individual classes and the entire school their findings and discoveries. Venturing to New York will allow our students to experience other languages and dialects, local culture, meet new people, promote stronger student/teachers bonds, expand their worldview, inspire them to reach for more, and encounter historical landmarks and world geography firsthand.
The benefit of traveling to a place like New York City is almost immeasurable, but building on the knowledge that they are studying the American Dream and this city is ‘the definitive melting pot of cultures where it’s possible to reinvent yourself’, a classroom within four walls can never replicate what the real sights, smells, and sounds can impress upon your mind and soul. We want our students to keep searching for this American Dream, that too many people today believe is a myth, but by visiting the places where the initial light was the American Dream, we hope to inspire our students to keep searching for theirs!
The main objective of this trip is to give these students the chance to journey to a place that they would never have the funds or the opportunity to visit any other time. This year our students are studying diversity and the American Dream school-wide. They are exploring the world around them through self-exploration and reflection in World Literature class including their home county and the world beyond in World History class. Since New York has always been the epitome of the American Dream, from the immigrants seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time to the brave men and women rushing up those flights of stairs to save their fellow Americans on 9/11, our students will be to connect from books to life and Wilkes County to New York City.
Wilkes Early College High School(WECHS) students are extremely hard-working and dedicate themselves to our school with such veracity. WECHS students, who are 80% first-generation college-going, choose to come to this early college in order to challenge themselves to complete both their HS diploma and associate’s degree at the same time. Coming from a Title I school where the entire county is 100% free and reduced lunch, venturing outside of their county to a place like New York only seems like a dream. Most of our students are thrilled to come to school because they know there will be food supplied and staff that care for them waiting through the school doors. This opportunity would help our impoverished students align their world to the world that they study.
In search of the American Dream!! This year our student's completed a school-wide book read about the American Dream based on the book by Adam Shepherd, Scratch Beginnings. We have planned the 9th and 10th grade class trip around this theme. Living life through experience is something that our school takes very seriously and passionately tries to offer opportunities for our students. Studying the past comes alive when students are able to relate it to the impact it has on the present-day. This trip will only enhance what is going on in the classroom from World Literature and History and the study of the immigrants coming to New York in search of the American Dream.
Throughout the trip students will be completing self-reflections and later presenting to their individual classes and the entire school their findings and discoveries. Venturing to New York will allow our students to experience other languages and dialects, local culture, meet new people, promote stronger student/teachers bonds, expand their worldview, inspire them to reach for more, and encounter historical landmarks and world geography firsthand.
The benefit of traveling to a place like New York City is almost immeasurable, but building on the knowledge that they are studying the American Dream and this city is ‘the definitive melting pot of cultures where it’s possible to reinvent yourself’, a classroom within four walls can never replicate what the real sights, smells, and sounds can impress upon your mind and soul. We want our students to keep searching for this American Dream, that too many people today believe is a myth, but by visiting the places where the initial light was the American Dream, we hope to inspire our students to keep searching for theirs!
Organizer and beneficiary
Ashley Boykin
Organizer
Wilkesboro, NC
Michelle Shepherd
Beneficiary
