Traveling abroad grants the opportunity to learn new things, meet new people and gain cultural exposure. CHS students have the opportunity to explore the world while earning high school or college credits with Education First (EF) Tours.

EF partners with the high school and offers yearly sign-ups for a trip. Students can sign up by talking to CHS English teacher Lisa Harris, and by doing so they gain access to a fundraising page where friends and family members can contribute to the trip. Harris reflects on her past experience of traveling abroad.

“I went on my first trip when I was in high school, it was a part of my graduation and I got to go spend three weeks in France,” Harris said. “I had saved up by asking for birthdays, Christmas and graduation gifts and it was really life-changing.”

Exposure to new things outside of the United States is a great opportunity to learn about other cultures. Traveling outside of the US also allows students to learn about the history of the country they are visiting.

“I’m really looking forward to experiencing a different culture, I feel like I’m not really familiar with cultures outside of the US and I think expanding my horizons to different countries would be a good experience for me,” junior Noah Segal said.

EF Tours allows students to earn high school or college credits if they would like to. Students will do a project or write a paper if they want to earn credits.

“[Students] can get school credit and college credit, they do like a project thing, and that’s all through EF Tours,” Harris said.

Carlsbad Unified School District and its teachers are planning many different EF tours over the next couple of years, including Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Greece and more.

“I decided to go on this trip because I really wanted to go to see the world when I’m older and I might as well start now,” Segal said.

The opportunity to meet new people, learn new things and travel the world while still in high school can be a great experience for many students. Each country will offer many different experiences where students will be exposed to new things that they otherwise wouldn’t in the US.

“Because of [going on the trip to France in high school], I got to travel to all of these different European countries, and the experience of meeting new people and seeing new cultures,” Harris said.