MBJH students to explore 'Education as a Human Right' in Europe

Friday afternoon, 21 Mountain Brook students entering ninth and 10th grades will board a plane to Amsterdam for an 11-day tour of Europe with EF Tours, an international cultural immersion program for students. 

In Amsterdam, the students will visit The Hague and Anne Frank’s House. From Amsterdam, the students will travel to Paris, where they will visit the UNESCO Headquarters. Afterward, the students will visit the United Nations Office in Geneva.

The trip will culminate in a Summit Leadership Conference in Davos, Switzerland, with the theme of “Education as a Human Right.” Students will attend workshops with students and teachers from around the world and create solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing education using Design Thinking, “a creative problem-solving technique used by companies like Apple and Google,” according to the website for EF Tours.

“Even though students spend a large portion of their time at school, they’re rarely involved in the conversation of what education should look like,” Jennifer Nelson said.  Nelson teaches English at Mountain Brook Junior High and will be leading the trip this year with the help of two chaperones, MBJH teachers Leslie Stephenson and Lisa Lewis.

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, one of the world’s foremost speakers on education and creativity, will be the keynote speaker for the summit. His TED talk, "Do schools kill creativity?" has been viewed more than 30 million times on YouTube.

After her senior year of high school, Nelson went to France with EF Tours for a language program with her French teacher. “I was really impressed not only with how organized it was but also with how much freedom we had to explore,” she said.

“We live in a fantastic community, but it’s so important to see other places and meet new people,” said Nelson. “I really want them to learn the value of hearing different perspectives and collaborating with a group of people.”

In a pre-trip lunch meeting on June 16, Nelson answered students’ questions about foreign currency, packing, flight information, international cell phone use and itinerary details. With several first-time international travelers, there was a lot to cover.

Meme Everette, a rising sophomore, is both excited and nervous for her first trip out of the country. In preparation, she has been researching the cities on their itinerary and thinking about the theme of the summit, “Education as a Human Right.” “It’s an important issue to tackle, so it’s good that we’re studying it,” she said.

“I want to make them feel comfortable, but at the same time I want them to get out of their comfort zones and try something new,” said Nelson.

Rising sophomore Adelaide Burton will be a social media intern for EF Tours during the summit. In addition to running EF Tours’ Snapchat, eftours, Burton will live-tweet the summit on June 27-29 on EF Tours’ Twitter account, @eftours.

“I was interested in learning about social media and marketing professionally, and the social media internship seemed like a good way to get involved with the conference,” she said. “I’m excited to travel and see new places, work on teams at the conference and listen to the keynote speakers.”

Burton will also live-tweet a press conference with the Sir Robinson and have the opportunity to ask questions.

Although the trip is not technically an official Mountain Brook Junior High School trip, Nelson said that the administration has been very supportive.

Stay tuned for a post-trip update after the students return at the end of June. A detailed itinerary of the trip can be found on the EF Tours’ website.