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Practicing what they learn
By WENDY LEMUS, STAFF WRITER
The first week of school for seniors at Cary Christian School was spent thousands of miles and cultures away from the classroom. The highschoolers left backpacks, pencils and notebooks at home as they headed to Brazil for the school's first Senior Service Practicum.
"Instead of having a senior trip that was about going to the mountains or beach and having fun, they put into practice some of the things that they've been learning over the years," said Tim McClelland, school founder and board member, who accompanied the senior class on the trip.
The trip, which took place July 29-Aug. 5, was coordinated through Churches in Mission, an organization in Sanford that helps local groups arrange short-term missions work trips.
While the rest of Cary Christian School started back to class Aug. 2, the group of 13 high school seniors and four adults immersed themselves in a cross-cultural educational experience and a service-filled week in and around Curitiba, a city of about 2 million people in southern Brazil.
The group visited a drug rehabilitation center, did a building refurbishing project in a poor neighborhood, taught English in several schools, worked in an orphanage and helped paint a new community building where a mission feeds the poor.
Students also helped lead church worship services.
Senior T.J. Tatlow said the language barrier did not prevent Cary Christian students from "connecting" with the many students they met in Brazil, where the national language is Portuguese.
"I think I learned more about my classmates just this week in Brazil than I had the entire year before," said Tatlow, whose father, Tom Tatlow, also accompanied the group. "It was a very well-rounded trip. For a lot of kids it was their first time out of the country."
Georgia Lackey, another senior, said she got so much out of the trip that she is thinking about changing her college major. One of the things she learned is that people can be happy with a lot less, materially speaking, than one might think.
"I was so impressed by the kindness and the warm hearts of the Brazilian people," Lackey said. "Americans may have a lot more than these Brazilians do but they don't actually live very generously."
She said she picked up Portuguese fairly quickly, leading her to consider studying to become a translator instead of pursuing a business degree when she starts college next year.
A goal for Cary Christian School is "providing excellent classical education founded upon a biblical world view" â?? a motto found on its Web site home page.
Lackey, a student at the school since third grade, said she was happy to have the cross-cultural experience and to put her education into practice.
"It's very good for kids to learn how to be of service and at the same time step across cultures," McClelland said. "Particularly Cary kids need to see people can get by on many fewer things than people have in Cary."
Tatlow said several students in his class want to go into community service occupations, possibly abroad.
The trip was included in students' tuition so that all the seniors would have the chance to go. (Two students of the 15-member class were not able to make the trip.)
"It was considered a part of our curriculum," Tatlow said.
On Tuesday, the class shared its experiences with Cary Christian School's other high school students during a school assembly.
McClelland said he would be talking with school Superintendent Larry Stephenson about continuing the Senior Service Practicum for future graduating classes, even it that means staying a little closer to home to keep costs down.
The idea for the practicum had been Stephenson's.
"It was the culmination of a dream â?? the idea of young people coming out of our school with a heart for service and willing to go into other cultures," McClelland said.
Lackey said she hopes future graduating classes will have the same opporunity that she did this summer.
"I totally think that the school should continue it," she said.
This article originally appeared in the Cary News