Jeremy

I am on this trip for a variety of reasons.  The main one is that I value community service and public policy action – it is one of my highest ideals.  As for education, I value more of the style and thought of the lessons than the content – while learning specific things are of course important, discussing and accepting (or rejecting) different philosophies are so much more important.

I am a junior studying Anthropology here at Maryland.  I am most interested in environmental anthropology, which studies the interactions and relationships between a culture and its environment, including natural, artificial, and superficial.  While at KIPP: Gaston I hope to observe how the students interact with their school surroundings, and try to compare their experiences with my own.  My educational upbringing was very privileged.  I went to one of the best elementary schools in the county, and while my middle school was not near the best and was going through very significant changes while I was there, my high school was and still is one of the wealthiest and most privileged high schools in the county as well; I took multiple AP courses and formed close relationships with many of my teachers.

This trip is the highlight of my winter break, and with this experience as both a leader and a new "education-service" participant, I look forward to what doors this trip will open for me and what other opportunities I will be presented with in the coming semesters.