Travelers get sea legs in Portugal through aquatic focus

Over the summer, GEAC students from West expanded their boundaries and went on trips for the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE). This non-profit organization sets a  goal of promoting international travel for high school students. The program is open to Global Academy students at West, and English teacher Kel Wayne was able to guide students through the application process.

“Some CIEE trips are language immersion, some are education based, and some are service based. It depends on where the student is thinking about traveling and what specific program focus they want to look at,” she said. “The students have to fill out an application that addresses their academic successes, and they have to submit tax forms because it’s scholarship based. Students get scholarships based on academics and financial needs.”

Both sophomore Addisyn Liptow and junior Carly Salzer went to Setúbal, Portugal for the Aquatic Ecosystems and Sustainability program. Liptow has always loved animals, making the trip a perfect fit.

“Since I was really young, I’ve always been really interested in marine biology. I’ve taken electives now about it and just animals in general," she said. “My trip was the first one that came up when I typed in ‘animals’. We got to be in the ocean a lot and we learned how to surf, so it was right up my alley.”

Both Wildcat girls were placed in a group of about 30 students who stayed together for the duration of the three-week long trip. Their days were a mixture of education-based activities and a couple hours of free time each day.

“We didn’t go to school every day, but there were days that we would go. We had our classrooms there where we would learn with two different teachers,” Liptow said. “One was more hands-on with doing experiments, and one was learning more about the actual ecosystems specifically in Setúbal. We also got to explore different cities. We went to Lisbon, which is the capital. Even on the days we didn’t go to school, we were still learning something.”

Because the focus of the trip was marine life, the activities the group participated in centered around that theme.

“We did go to classes while we were there and learned about different aquatic ecosystems like fresh water, salt water, and things like that,” Salzer said. “We also did hands-on things like going into tide pools and looking at different animals, spending time on the beach, bird watching activities, even surfing at one point, alongside snorkeling and dolphin watching.”

While she was in Portugal, Salzer got to try new things she had never experienced before.

“Surfing was definitely a highlight for me because that’s not something you can not do in Wisconsin. It was a really cool experience,” she said. “On our way out to go snorkeling, we saw a ton of dolphins which was definitely a highlight as well.”

New friendships with people from all around the country were also formed.

“My two closest friends while I was over there were from North Carolina and Arkansas,” Salzer said. “It was crazy- the same day we got there, I had already shared my life story with this girl, and we were best friends for the whole trip after that. We have group Facetimes as much as we can now.”

In terms of communication, students had a chance to try their hand at a new language.

“We had classes trying to teach us the basics of Portuguese,” Liptow said. “For the most part though, we were speaking English, but when we needed to ask for our room numbers for the keys, we would have to ask in Portuguese because most of the workers there didn’t speak English.”

A cultural difference that was a shock to Salzer was the way strangers interacted with each other.

“In Portugal, they don’t think it’s rude to stare. Personal space really isn’t a thing there,” she said. “You just kind of get used to everyone staring at you, and it’s not rude if you stare back. If you’re in a busy town, people will be really close to you, and sometimes they’ll brush past you to go around you.”

For students this age, Wayne believes that this is truly an experience like no other.

“Besides pushing yourselves out of your comfort zone, students are meeting and interacting with a lot of different people,” she said. “A lot of these programs are three weeks or more, so they’re truly immersing themselves in the culture of the place. The skills they gain by being able to do that in high school are just unmeasurable.”

Being thrust into a new country by herself molded Liptow into a more confident person.

“Once I was on the plane, I realized I was kind of fending for myself, and it forced me in a good way to have to talk to other people,” she said. “I was a pretty social person before going there, but after the trip and having to just say hello and start conversations, it definitely made it easier for me to talk to people. It made me more independent because even though you’re with other people, it forces you to grow up a little bit.”

Salzer had a similar experience, and she came away from the trip with newfound realizations about herself.

“I learned that I can be independent when I need to, and that we are truly capable of so much more than we would have ever thought,” she said. “I know I only went to one place, but there were so many differences that it really opened my eyes to different cultures around the world. Going across seas by myself definitely opened my horizons to meeting new people, getting outside my comfort zone, and having fun.”

By Abby Furcy

Oshkosh West Index Volume 119 Issue I

October 3, 2022