Middle School
During the last week of January, while New York was enduring bitter cold temperatures, a group of brilliant MMFS 8th graders and lucky faculty and staff were on the annual Costa Rica language immersion trip. We’ve been running this trip for 15 years as part of our mission to bring the curriculum to life with international travel. Every year the Head of School reports on how well the students do in their Spanish classes, and how much fun the group has after classes are done—ziplining, surfing, swimming, boating, dolphin spotting, bird watching, shopping, and of course, eating. But this year we added something new to the Costa Rica trip—in keeping with the Quaker testimony of service and our commitment to empowering students to become “contributing members of a global society.”
This year we added a service component to our trip. MMFS students worked on a project at an elementary school in the town of Lorena, run by an organization called Siempre Amigos. Working alongside local students, our 8th graders helped to lay the foundation for a new basketball court and painted new areas of the school.
The work on the basketball court involved raking, hauling, and leveling dirt. For the painting project, students brightened the building’s entrance with coats of green and blue paint.
Once the work was finished, the paint brushes washed, and the tools put away, the MMFS students joined the local students in a game of soccer. After all that hard work and running around, everyone was thrilled when a local community women’s organization brought them homemade empanadas and tamarind juice. The students were effusive with their thanks—en español.
We have long wanted to add a service project to the 8th grade Costa Rica trip as a way to deepen our practice of the Quaker testimony. True to form, MMFS students made this day a complete success with their hard work and desire to help.
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