Global Learning and Adventure

Crescent’s Outreach and Adventure trips offer students exciting opportunities to learn in diverse and vibrant cultures. They challenge students to step outside their comfort zones by exploring unfamiliar and sometimes rugged environments while simultaneously building global awareness. This year, over eighty Upper School students embarked on transformative experiences in B.C./Yukon, Costa Rica, South Africa, and Japan.

The students visiting B.C. and Yukon kicked off their trip with a visit to the University of British Columbia, where they were hosted by three alumni. Then, over three days, they camped and canoed on the Sunshine Coast, learning about local plants and land, before heading to Whitehorse, where they immersed themselves in the region's history and culture through activities like glass blowing, beadwork, and a visit to the McClaren Centre. The guidance and teachings from the Indigenous community provided a unique perspective, as noted by one of the trip participants, “Stepping into their world allowed me to experience what it’s like to live among them and to respect their land.”

The Costa Rica trip highlights included hiking to a lagoon, making cocoa nibs and tamales, and working together on a beach cleanup while staying at a nature preserve in the rainforest. They also visited Sepecue, an Indigenous community, where they learned about local customs, volunteered at a local school, and explored historical sites. It was a true cultural immersion, which was eye-opening for the boys. “In many ways, the people we visited have much less than us, but their culture is so rich and they seem very happy. It made me realize how biased we can be, and the importance of keeping an open mind when we learn about other cultures.”

Further afield in Cape Town, South Africa, students learned about penguin rehabilitation and toured Robben Island, exploring Nelson Mandela's prison cell. The group volunteered at Ladles for Love, a food bank, packaging 2 tonnes of rice and helping with local community projects. The students heartily agreed that the long travel to this destination was worth witnessing how South Africa’s needs are similar to the socio-economic challenges we share with respect to food insecurity and poverty.

The travellers to Japan explored Tokyo, visiting Hibiya Park, Tokyo's National Museum, Tokyo Tower, and the Meiji Jingu Shrine. Withstanding rain and snow, they learned about Japan's modern history as well as the country’s spiritual side during a temple stay at Koyasan, a sacred monastery complex and one of Japan's most important Buddhist sites. They experienced the unique fan culture at a Hanshin Tigers baseball game in Osaka, concluding a journey filled with cultural discoveries and personal reflections.

“Travelling to far-flung destinations and learning about other cultures teaches us that the world is not such a big, foreign place,” says Justin Chau, Director of Outreach. “Many of the issues that countries are facing today, and our common humanity, help us realize that people across the globe are more similar than different.”