Randolph Readers Share Space with G-Town

While I was at Gowanda, I made a commitment to share a significant responsibility with my two wonderful colleagues, Bill Schindler and Barb Dempsey. Even though I’m now at Randolph, I plan to follow through with the commitment and so we will be leading a student tour to Switzerland, Italy and the French Riviera that leaves this Friday at 4:30 am. This was a commitment that I discussed with our BOE members during the interview and so I’ll be using my vacation time to travel with the group.

This will be my fourth student tour to Europe, the first which I led from my teaching position at Pine Valley in 1997. Every trip has been an incredible experience for the students and definitely for me. I recall planning that first trip in wonder that I would have the opportunity to travel abroad, something this small town coal miner’s daughter never imagined before that day.

I love that my life has landed me here in Western New York and I’m truly blessed in my personal and professional life. But I love seeing and imagining all of the other amazing places that I could have landed if I was born to a different life or made different choices. I recognize what an incredible opportunity this trip provides and I can’t imagine doing it without students. Well, about day eight when we’re exhausted from the non-stop twelve hour days I might be able to imagine it, but right now all I can think about is the anticipation of the small town kids who are going on the adventure of a life time. I’m privileged to get to see it with them and through their eyes.

So Randolph Readers, we’ll be sharing this space with G-Town (Gowanda) Readers over the span of the tour as I’ll be blogging about our trip. I managed to post about the trip when we went in 2007 and it was a great success. We don’t have cell phones over there and pay phones are hit or miss so the blog is a way to keep those nervous moms at home (Mrs. Kerker ;-)) vicariously in touch. And feel free to post a comment because I’ll be sure to share them with the group. It’s easy, give it a try!

Get ready to join us for the trip of a lifetime Readers, but first we’ve got about 24 hours of travel time from Friday through Saturday morning–stay well while we’re gone.