CHS students to travel to Panama for learn leadership training

Four students and two community members will be traveling to Nicaragua and Costa Rica with Ms. Justinen from Chester High School in July with a company called EF Educational Tours.

EF, standing for Education First, started in 1965 has an educational philosophy of experiential learning, cultural immersion, and authentic connections. Ms. Justinen visited Panama from Jan. 11-15 to complete required EF training in preparation for the trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

In Panama, she met up with 42 other teachers for EF Student Travel Group Leadership Training.

Along with the training, Ms. Justinen visited a few sites during her trip, including The BioMuseo, a biodiversity museum and botanical park in Panama City designed by famous architect Frank Gehry; the Panama Canal, where she stood beside the canal with only a yellow line between her and the canal; and Portobello, a city captured by Captain Henry Morgan in 1668, where she went snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea.

Justinen and the students are gearing up for their trip where the students will be learning through cultural experience. On their trip, the students will create many memories and check off many experiences with the schedule that is planned for them.

They will be going zip lining and on a boat cruise through the jungle, snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean, as well as visiting a coffee plantation, hiking to a volcano crater, and visiting the cities of Granada, Nicaragua and San Jose, Costa Rica.

All these encounters will take place with a group of approximately 30 other students from different areas of the United States.