Telstar juniors and seniors will head abroad in April

Telstar students visited France with their teacher, Tera Ingraham, far right, in 2022. A group leaves in April for Greece and Italy. submitted photo

BETHEL — Class of 2028 Advisor and Visual Arts Teacher, Tera Ingraham, (the students call her “Miss I),” plans to take 27 students to Greece and Italy in April.

“I always have one or two that have never been on an airplane.” said Ingraham, “They are like little ducklings. They follow me around. By the end of the trip they are independent. They feel confident. It is really empowering to see when they travel and learn how to take care of themselves … “

A few weeks before they depart on April 10 they will have an informational meeting on what to pack and what not to pack. Ingraham said they are learning how to save money for the trip, how to travel with money, what their bank will allow, and what the exchange rate will be.

“A large percentage of my students are paying for it themselves,” said Ingraham. The cost per student is just under $4,000 which includes airfare and nearly all other travel expenses. Hotel fees, breakfast, dinner, museum entry fees, and payment to tour guides are included. Ingraham said Project Opportunity has helped some students with the cost. But mostly they are paying on their own and using Facebook or a website to ask family and friends for some additional help.

An Education First (EF) consultant met with Ingraham after the Telstar students decided what part of Europe they were interested in visiting. The tour guides help with translations and their group could be combined with another group. In years past the Telstar students have met students from other parts of New England during the tours. A few parents and teachers are going too, as chaperones.

Ingraham has worked in the district since 2003 and at Telstar since 2013. She said she won’t be bringing her six-year old daughter Aurora because their travel days are very tightly scheduled. She said they head out right after breakfast. “The idea is to keep them moving and exploring,” she said.

This will be Ingraham’s fifth trip with Telstar students. In the first year, 2017, she chaperoned 22 Telstar students through Italy and Greece. In 2019, her group was smaller so they travelled to five countries: Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, France and Spain. Like the first trip they went just after graduation when there was heat wave in Europe. She decided going during April vacation made more sense and the timing was better for her students. Because of COVID, they pushed their 2021 Greece trip up a year to 2022.

Telstar students traveling abroad in 2022.

This trip will begin in Athens at the Acropolis. Next they will head to Greece’s Plaka District. At night they have reservations at a Greek restaurant. The kids will get to participate in the singing and dancing, said Ingraham. After a visit to The Temple of Apollo in Delphi they will board an overnight ferry to Italy where they will visit a monastery first, then tour the cities of Florence and Rome. They head home April 19.

Ingraham said she loves to see their faces light up, “when it hits them that they are in Europe and not in the United States.”

She added that it’s cool to see how much they grow in 10 days. She credits the trip with giving some of her former students the confidence to study abroad in college.

Said Ingraham, “Toward the end when I am still a little worried that they may not know what they are doing, they will turn and look at me and say ‘I got this!'”

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