Now well established and in its fourth year, XP—the school’s international and domestic, co-curricular travel program—successfully led 45 students on adventures to India, Vietnam, Peru, Miami, the Florida Everglades, and Canada. This year’s theme was “Cultural Crossroads” Machu Picchu, Peru and each destination was carefully chosen to give students the chance to study the intersections of different cultures as it related to their trip.
In India and Vietnam, students saw the ways in which colonialism by the British in India and Chinese and French in Vietnam shaped these places in tangible and intangible ways. One highlight for the students was an evening playing pick-up basketball in a neighborhood of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). One student reflected, “ I loved the fact that sports are a universal thing that can bring people together, singular locations. Whether it was the art in the different neighborhoods they visited, the Cuban food and ice cream, the experience of hearing Spanish spoken all around them, and even those gigantic alligators in the Everglades, the students were left wide-eyed, gaping-jawed, and open-minded toward the richness of the experience and how different a place can be—even within their own country. and language barriers and identity don’t have to hinder its enjoyment. I would’ve never imagined that people from our sports teams at Daystar would be playing with others from across the world in an Asian country. I loved watching them have so much fun together, and it was meaningful to see the diversity in the group that played.”
While the Canada trip is primarily designed as an introduction to the XP program, it also provides a rich opportunity for co-curricular exploration. One tradition is the annual trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford. Students were asked to memorize and recite the “All the World’s a Stage” monologue from As You Like It before being able to see it performed on stage. They loved their experience in Canada and graduated this entry-level trip to be ready for XP adventures far and wide in the years to come.
In their summer reading assignments, group-planning exercises, on-trip and post-trip reflections, and during each carefully curated activity, students are eating, sleeping, and breathing in the co-curricular programming that has gone into the XP program. Cultural Crossroads opened their minds to the problems and solutions that our global community has faced
The influence of the Spanish and Inca cultures is ubiquitous in Peru; the two strong empires clashed and ultimately blended in terms of language, architecture, tradition, and food. Students were able to visit Machu Picchu and learn from a native guide about the marvels of engineering and culture that coincide at this sacred site. A day at an indigenous-run “Potato Park” held special meaning for the students. One said, “A lot of what they talked about really got me thinking—one thing that has stuck out to me is how they see the connection of women to mother earth, and this has resulted in them having the women plant the seeds of the potatoes in the ground as a symbol of their nurturing character.”
A theme for the Miami and Florida Everglades trip was “impressed.” The students used this word over and over in their reflections to describe the incredible sensory experiences in the past and present when people who may feel fundamentally different must find a way to coexist and even collaborate. We are grateful for all of our supporters, most especially through your prayers, which allow us to live our motto that “The World is our Classroom.”
Our theme for 2026, as selected by the faculty, will be “Epic: The Literature, Myths, and Legends that Made Us.” We look forward to infusing our curriculum with ideas for living out these ideas in Greece, Ecuador, and New Orleans!
