After a long hiatus, students at Boothbay Region High School (BRHS) are going international. In February, nine students from the junior and senior classes will take a nine-day excursion to Costa Rica through Education Tours (EF), where they'll kayak across Lake Arenal, zipline through lush canopies and do much more. Joining them are nine students from Wiscasset Middle High School, led by French/Spanish teacher and Boothbay resident Conxa Packard. 

However, there's still fundraising to do before joining the jet set. The group's first fundraiser will be at Boothbay Railway Village Museum's Spooktacular selling warm crockpot meals, sweet treats and hot apple cider/cocoa. The event is on Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

BRHS Spanish teacher Hannah Johnson said the goal is for each student to raise about $100 to be used for incidental expenses and tipping. Aside from personal spending money, all costs are included in the trip price, roughly $4,000 per student. Most have been paying about $200 a month installments for the past year and a half. 

With seven countries already in her travelog, Johnson came from a family that prioritized cultural experiences and can speak to its personal impact.Johnson said she learned she was only one small piece of Earth's giant puzzle. But while globetrotting was feasible for her family, it isn't for most people nowadays. The trip's goal is to offer a slightly more affordable option, so students can still have these worthwhile experiences.  

"Our students here in Boothbay have a particular need to expand their worldviews. They're from a very unique and incredible place, but it is rare that we see cultural expression or celebrations happening on the peninsula that are not tied to our traditional American holidays or to our local maritime traditions," said Johnson.  

If the 2027 trip is successful, Johnson hopes to lead a larger cohort once every year, alternating between BRHS' February and April break to accommodate student athletes. This all stems from a desire to resurrect the robust international travel and student exchange programs that existed at BRHS before the COVID pandemic and have yet to return.  

"The honest truth is that it is so easy to make excuses about how it's not the right time ... but for every year that passed where we're not exposing students to other cultures in a firsthand way, we are robbing them of the invaluable, often life-changing experience of true immersion into a culture and a language other than one's own."  

In her Spanish classroom, Johnson uses culture as a window to explore the language. And with 21 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, there's an incredible diversity of culture, cuisine, music, traditions, celebrations and values. Not to mention the dialects and unique vocabulary that spring up as a result.   

"If I can open a student's eyes to even a small portion of the rich and vibrant cultural aspects of the countries we study in class, I see no downside to that."