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Hopkins Spring Trips

Ellie Medovnikov '22 and Sarah Roberts '20, News Editor
This year, along with the annual sports Spring Training trips, Hopkins students had the option to travel to Italy and explore Amalf and Atrani while bettering their language skills, or participate in an educational tour of Northern Europe about World War II.
As the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord, D-Day, approaches, 32 Hopkins students and five faculty members experienced the realities of World War II through
a trip across Europe. History teacher and primary trip organizer David DeNaples explained his goal of the trip: “I want them to walk away from this trip feeling the war in their souls; having the reality of such a conflict reach them in a way that no textbook or documentary can.”

After London was Normandy, then Bastogne, Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, and fnally Austria. Connor Hartigan ’19 emphasized that he was excited to “viscerally feel what it would have been like to be there during the War.” The group took a ferry across the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy, just as the Allied soldiers did in 1944 – minus the lethal German threat.

Sam D’Errico ’20, having never left the country before, was excited: “I think this trip will open my eyes to new ways of seeing the world in a way that staying in the United States could not.”

Emma Regan ’20 stated, “I’m excited to learn how to travel effciently internationally and see firsthand the history of World War II. I also think it will be fun to change things up after a long winter o my term paper, SAT prep, and working.”

Although the World War II trip was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, DeNaples noted that he doesn’t see this trip happening again: “It is truly a once in a lifetime trip, but there are other amazing trips centered on history that I am looking into already. Vietnam, anyone?”

In addition to the World War II trip, fourteen Hopkins students traveled to Amalfi and Salerno in Italy to experience a language and culture immersion. Although a spring break to Italy has generally run every couple of years, Italian teacher Teresa Picarazzi began to plan this specifc trip when she spent a part of last summer in Salerno and on the Amalfi Coast. “During my time in Italy, I observed the language classes ofered by the Accademia Italiana, a language and culture school in Salerno,” explained Picarazzi. Hopkins students took language classes in the mornings at the Accademia and explored the area in their afternoons.

Chloe Smith ’20, a dedicated Italian student, explained that she was “excited to meet all the students at the high school in Salerno,” especially the pen pal she was assigned and has been emailing for the past couple weeks.

Spring sports teams have been going to Florida for their annual training trips since Athletic Director Rocco DeMaio was a student in the 1980s, “The trip started out as baseball training trips that modeled MLB spring training trips in March,” noted DeMaio, but other sports quickly picked up the tradition. This year, Baseball, Girls and Boys Tennis, Girls and Boys Lacrosse, and Golf all went on Spring Training trips. Instead of going to diferent parks separately over the sixteen-day break, all teams went to Universal during the first week of break and stayed in the same hotel complex, promoting more interaction between teams.

Joshua Seidner ’20, a member of the baseball team who has gone on the trip for the past three years, reflected that he is still excited about the trip. “Spring sports trips are about the memories you make. They set the energy and chemistry of the team for a year to come” asserted Seidner.

Olivia Wen ’20, a junior on Varsity Girls Tennis, expressed a similar sentiment: “Our coach has always stressed the importance of team bonding and I’m glad I got to travel together with the team this year and strengthen my friendships!” This year was the first Spring Training trip for Girls Tennis in over a decade, and they plan to make it an annual occurrence.

Spring break just ended, but many Hopkins students already have their sights set on summer. Hopkins student Serena Ta stated she is “already counting down the days until the next day off.”

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