The changes and impact of global education opportunities at Catlin Gabel School

By Erin Chow ‘25

Collage of photos from previous Upper School language-specific global trips at Catlin Gabel School collected from past yearbooks. Assembled by Erin Chow.

Catlin Gabel School (CGS) is known for its promotion of experiential learning opportunities for students to partake in. One aspect of this is the annual global trips that students can apply for.

Typically, two to three trips run depending on the application turnout with any student enrolled at Catlin having eligibility to apply. Additionally, if a student receives financial aid, their package travels with them, creating opportunities for all students. 

For these global trips to run successfully, it involves an abundant amount of work from the faculty members who proposed these trips. This work accumulates through the whole planning process and during the trip to run successfully.

For many years, Catlin offered the opportunity for students to enrich their language knowledge through language-specific global trips in the Upper School and Middle School. In the past, Upper School students taking Mandarin Chinese traveled to China, students taking Spanish went to Guatemala, and those taking French traveled to France. 

However, in 2012, a new rule was implemented where language-specific trips in the Upper School were no longer offered to remain inclusive for students who weren’t taking a language.

Alternatively, students could get a language waiver, which according to Upper School Learning Specialist Jeffrey Silverstein are “granted for specific learning differences that significantly impact the student's ability to meet the graduation requirement in that subject.”

Despite the Upper School removing language-specific trips, the Middle School continues to offer the global experience. 

At the time, Dave Whitson, the formal Global Education Director from 2012-2014 and 2018-2019, saw the shift of disbanding the language-specific global trips as a reflection of Catlin’s core values: inclusion and equity.

Whitson explained that if three global language-specific trips were to run, and many of the trip slots went to juniors and seniors, the pool of applicants would become extremely limited. “If you ended up in a year with two language-specific trips, you have a subsection of students who are only eligible for a single trip,” said Whitson. 

Additionally, the current Global Education Director, Li-Ling Cheng, highlights that “if a student has a language waiver, they will get a chance to travel when they get to the Upper School,” as trips in the Middle School are language-specific. The discontinuation of language-specific trips in the Upper School opened up trips that were open to all students. 

However, eliminating language-specific trips hindered the ability of students to enhance their language skills outside of the classroom as many of the unique experiences provided by global trips cannot be replicated within the traditional classroom setting. 

“There is only so much you can be taught by being in-person and experiencing [the language],” said senior Lily Mae Arenz. Arenz is enrolled in the Honors Spanish Seminar and has been a language student for four years but never had the chance to travel abroad for a language-specific global trip. 

“I know that a lot of the time, people that I talk to that are language speakers find [language-specific global trips] really enhances their language speaking capabilities,” Arenz adds.

Research has shown the ability of language-specific global trips to offer a variety of benefits for the participants. Language-specific trips, characterized by continuous language use, effectively help students improve their language skills over time. Additionally, these experiences allow for immersion into the local multicultural experiences, which can further spark passion for the language. 

A member of the language department echoes these benefits of having language-specific global trips and sees the value in applying learning within an authentic environment. This allows students to cement their learning and further boost their confidence by having to adapt to new situations.

Nevertheless, to ensure inclusivity, global ed trips' purpose is to seek a balance by offering some trips where language plays a key role while also providing opportunities that do not require language skills.

Ultimately, this decision made by Catlin was curated to focus on and add emphasis on its core values as there has been very little research that pinpoints drawbacks to offering language-specific trips.

In a conversation about whether language-specific trips were to occur, junior Jane Hanson, one of a handful of students not enrolled in a language class, said, “I’m missing out a little bit [because] it's not a choice I have.” 

Moreover, she mentions how she “sees the perspective of the other side where the people who do take the language would want the opportunity to go [on the trip].”

In agreement, Whitson emphasized that he doesn’t necessarily “see the point” of language-specific global trips if global trips can still travel to those language-specific countries but are open for anyone to apply. This would allow students who are taking the language to become “translators” while students not taking the language could become fascinated, sparking a new interest.

Additionally, regarding Whitson’s previous point about increasing the applicant pool, he added that implementing language-specific trips that are open to all students would increase the number of applicants while ensuring the process is fair to any student at Catlin.

These various viewpoints from faculty such as Whitson and current Catlin students have culminated into the overall opinions about whether language-specific global trips are truly beneficial and have been consistently expressed through themes of exposure and experiencing different cultures, enhancing language skills, and gaining proficiency. 

In the end, Catlin is extremely fortunate to be able to offer and run these once-in-a-lifetime experiences for students to take advantage of. It's also important to recognize and express gratitude for the faculty who put time and energy into creating and supervising these global experiences for students whether they be language-specific or not.