Walking into the Under Armour headquarters in Baltimore on Dec. 3, 2015 senior Paul Wilson takes in the scene of new products being made. It was a “cool experience seeing products that haven’t even released to the public,” Wilson said.  

New York City, Camden Yards, and the Under Armour headquarters in the Inner Harbor are all places students have gone on field trips this year. Going on these trips not only gives a real-world perspective on the things learned in the classroom, but also allows memories to be made.

Throughout the four-year high school experience, a student goes on a solid number of field trips, depending on the classes you take. We should be thankful to go on any, but since most people have the funds for trips, more trips should be offered.There are tons of students who would love to go on these trips, but there aren’t very many opportunities.

Retreats are a version of a field trip that is standard throughout every JC student. They are a great bonding experience with not only God, but peers as well. However, they shouldn’t be the majority of the field trips some students go on who don’t take classes with field trip opportunities. Different classes have better opportunities now.

For example, the Entrepreneurial Studies class has already gone on 3 trips this year, whereas a class like Engineering doesn’t. It would be a tremendous benefit for an engineering student to get to see actual fieldwork by different types of engineers. This would allow students to see first hand what they do and see if it would be a possible career they would be interested in pursuing.  

Another example of the field trips already offered are things like exchange trips and European spring break trips. The exchange trips have been offered for a while, and gives JC students a great opportunity to actually apply the language and culture they are learning about on these trips to Spain, Germany, etc.

The administration and teachers have made efforts with service learning trips, like the trips to Montana and the Dominican Republic, and as shown in recent assemblies with people who attended those trips, they really made an impact on the people they served.

JC is always trying to expand the available trips for students every year, but getting approval for the trips is a tough job for the teachers. Many steps go into scheduling a trip. Appointments with representatives from the trip destination have to be made. Buses have to be scheduled and forms for safety reasons have to be collected, so to be fair, it’s no cakewalk to get a field trip approved.

Another little thing that holds most field trips back from getting approval is cost. It costs a lot of money to go on these trips. They can cost thousands of dollars and not everyone can dole out that kind of cash.

As far as the learning aspect of field trips, it has been proven in a study by NSTA, an organization that studies the science of teaching, that field trips do in fact enhance concepts in class that without these trips would otherwise be overlooked or ignored.

The field trips also gives the type of students who don’t like a class that is all lectures or PowerPoint-oriented a chance to connect the material to the real world.

There are endless opportunities for field trips. There are museums to see, sportswear factories to be in awe of, and countries to explore. In the end the more trips the better and going on the trips will not only enhance learning but make memories that will last a lifetime.

Mike Moxley is a Sports Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.