Dominion Leadership Program
"Through Faith and Education We Can Lead the World"

2006 International Travel Plans Include Costa Rica, South Africa

The Dominion Leadership Program strongly encourages at least one international travel experience of its students during their four years at Saint Paul’s.  International travel is important to the curriculum:

  1)  It supplements classroom learning about cultural diversity by letting students learn through direct experiences.

  2) It encourages students to break through barriers, both real and imagined, as to what they can and cannot do.

  3)  With international experiences on their resumes, and passports in hand, program graduates will have an edge in the   global marketplace.   

Two groups of leadership students have travel plans for 2006.  Two students and one professor will visit Costa Rica in late May, following Saint Paul’s final exams.  They will take an ecological tour and have the chance to plant trees in one of the national parks. Two students will travel to South Africa in mid-July,  joining a program established by Norfolk State University. They will tour Capetown universities, and bring a mobile science lab, called the Physmovan, to disadvantaged township high schools.  Dr. Arlene Maclin of Norfolk State University will be the lead professor on the South Africa trip, and Dr. Jennifer Palmgren will chaperone the Saint Paul’s students. 

Dr. Maclin’s program joins high school students, undergraduates, high school teachers, and university researchers in a STEM coalition (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).  Its goal is to encourage more young people to study science and math, especially in a “hands-on” way.   Norfolk State students who took part in last year’s trip reported that they received far more than they gave.  

Grants will help with the cost.  For example, Dr. Maclin’s program will pay for students’ rooms and meals, but not for their airfare or other expenses.  Please consider sponsoring a student as he or she begins what we hope will be a lifetime of travel.  For more information, contact the Dominion Leadership Program.  Upcoming newsletters will feature student articles about these trips.