By Jay Carroll
Staff Writer

The two-year-old EMAC Academy will give students a great opportunity to travel to a foreign country over the summer.

Every summer different groups of students participate in overseas trips. A couple of years ago the Chinese classes went to China during the summer, and this year the EMAC Academy is venturing out of their norm with a trip to Costa Rica.

Three Emerging Media and Communications Academy (EMAC) students will be going to the tropical country of Costa Rica in a month.

The trip was open for all EMAC students. However, only three students decided they would be going on the nine-day trip to the scenic country.

“I’m going because I definitely want to learn how to act and deal with real life situations and putting what I have learned to the test,” said EMAC sophomore Megan Menegay, who will serve as EMAC president in 2012-13.

During the nine-day trip from June 13-21, the students will be visiting eight cities. The students will be learning about the rainforest, ecology of Costa Rica and will be filming a documentary in the city of Monte Verde with the United Nations. After getting back from the trip they hope to share the video with students and raise awareness about deforestation and other issues in rainforest.

“I am hoping that this trip will broaden the students horizons,” EMAC director and KCBY adviser Irma Kennedy said. “I want to open their eyes to the world around us and to see that environment first hand.”

Aside from learning about Costa Rica and working hard to film a documentary, the students will be going horseback riding, hiking, zip lining and kayaking.

“I wanted to experience something new and go out with the academies and experience a Spanish speaking country,” sophomore Mark Slette said.

Menegay is an avid traveler and has been to many countries. She loves the language of Spanish and hopes to minor in Spanish in college.

“I have always loved the Spanish culture,” Menegay said. “So getting to know the Spanish culture better and experiencing it first hand is a real privilege.”

The academy is hoping to go on a trip overseas during the summer every year. To gather interest, the academy puts out a survey giving a couple of options and leaving the floor open to suggestions as to where there trip should be in the upcoming summer.

Kennedy says it would be fun to go to China on a future summer trip because they could visit CHS Spanish teacher Creighton Hulse is going overseas to China with his wife to teach English.

“The objective of the academies is to create a global minded student,” Kennedy said.  “We have had students say they want to go to Europe, Spain and China.”