For 16 Community School of Naples students, that question can be summed up in one word: Africa. The students were able to participate in a 20-day adventure, which included visits to the townships in Cape Town, a school in Zambia and the wilds on a safari in Botswana. The trip was the brainchild of Community School math teacher Sharon Moore. Before she taught at the Community School of Naples, Moore volunteered in the Peace Corps and lived in Zimbabwe. After she finished her service, Moore became part-owner in a safari tour company in Zambia. She said choosing Africa was a natural choice. "Naples is a very small town and gives you a very narrow perspective of the world," she said. "When I finished my service, part of what you agree to is helping Americans understand the world. As a teacher, this was my chance to do something different. I know when I saw what I saw (in Africa), it changed my life." Moore, who mapped out the trip in the summer of 2008, got permission from the school and began showing a slideshow about her time in Africa and what students might do on the trip. Students found out they would travel to South Africa, Zambia and Botswana.
Zambia RPCV Sharon Moore organizes safari for sixteen students at Community School of Naples
16 Community School of Naples students take 20-day summer safari in Africa
By KATHERINE ALBERS
posted August 30, 2009 at 12:20 a.m. , updated August 30, 2009 at 9:19 a.m.
Caption: Baby elephant in Chobe National Park in Botswana. Photo by Sharon Moore.
This summer, Michael Cates bungee jumped off a bridge in Zambia.
Emily Payne climbed Table Mountain and slept near lions.
Melissa Ellenman worked at a school in Zambia.
What did you do with your summer?
For 16 Community School of Naples students, that question can be summed up in one word: Africa. The students were able to participate in a 20-day adventure, which included visits to the townships in Cape Town, a school in Zambia and the wilds on a safari in Botswana.
The trip was the brainchild of Community School math teacher Sharon Moore. Before she taught at the Community School of Naples, Moore volunteered in the Peace Corps and lived in Zimbabwe. After she finished her service, Moore became part-owner in a safari tour company in Zambia. She said choosing Africa was a natural choice.
"Naples is a very small town and gives you a very narrow perspective of the world," she said. "When I finished my service, part of what you agree to is helping Americans understand the world. As a teacher, this was my chance to do something different. I know when I saw what I saw (in Africa), it changed my life."
Moore, who mapped out the trip in the summer of 2008, got permission from the school and began showing a slideshow about her time in Africa and what students might do on the trip. Students found out they would travel to South Africa, Zambia and Botswana.
The slide show caught Emily's eye.
"I thought, ‘Oh my God. I have to do that,'" she said. "It was the chance of a lifetime."
Cheryl Payne, Emily's mother, said she was excited when her daughter approached her about the trip.
"I didn't have a lot of fear about it. I have always encouraged my children to be independent," she said. "And I knew all four chaperones that were going - they were her teachers and I knew she would have a great time. I was nothing but excited."
Payne said many parents fears were alleviated by a "meticulous" plan given to the parents about where the students would be and the blog that students contributed to daily while on the trip.
"As a parent, the hardest thing is saying goodbye. But she came back better," Payne said. "It just expanded her world. I told her, ‘You are a lucky girl. I wish I was you.'"
Emily, 17, said the trip has forever changed her life.
"I want to go back to Africa definitely," she said.
While in Africa, the students performed a five-day service project at a school, which is run by someone Moore knows from the Peace Corps along with other volunteers and donations. The students did everything from painting murals to helping the students with their studies.
Melissa Ellenman, who is a freshman at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, said working at the school was the "coolest part of the trip."
"It is a different world. I think they appreciate everything more than we do," she said. "They had such an enthusiasm for school. ... And they all wanted to know about (President Barack) Obama."
The trip was an eye-opener for the students. Morgan Harris, a 2009 Community School graduate who is now a freshman at Florida State University, said the students encountered students without clothes and shoes in Zambia. She also said bungee jumping was "the best thing I've ever done."
"It has given me a much bigger perspective on the world and how we live," she said. "I think it is good to see other cultures."
Michael Cates, the bungee jumper, said the best part of the trip, to him, was that the group "knows Africa" now. He said the students got much more than a tourist experience.
"You realize there are so many different places in the world and different kinds of people," Michael, 17, said. "I will definitely go back to Africa."
Moore said she hopes the students develop a love for a group of people and a place and that they will want to give back.
"I hope they share it with someone else," she said. "That's the best."
Moore said she is hoping to organize another trip next summer, although she said the details about where and when aren't being made public yet.
Payne said she has a student who is ready to go with Moore.
"Emily's younger brother is in ninth grade. If Sharon does another trip, he's going," she said. "I think it's a good thing. You learn a lot about yourself on a trip like this."
