Finally catching up a bit after my travels, so here’s one that’s less words and more vibe (mostly pictures).
Since 2018, I’ve spent some of my summers leading student trips for Putney Student Travel.
I’ve had students with me exploring physics and science topics in Switzerland, robotics and engineering at MIT and traveling around Boston, I’ve led students on trips that explore aeronautics and space exploration in both Washington, D.C., and in Houston, and I’ve led students on explorations of climate and the environment in Iceland.
This year was a bit different, though.
Instead of my usual kind of trip with a science and exploration focus, I got to lead a middle school service trip in Hawaii. But it was a pretty fitting service trip, given my experience and background (and I still talked a bunch about science and exploration with the students!).
Unlike some of the other service trips that are out there for students, where the students and their leaders will be enmeshed within a community for weeks or even months while working together, this trip included service with multiple hosts across the Big Island of Hawaii, and offered the students a fairly sweeping exploration of Hawaiian culture, history, and the environment.
Along the way, the students learned a number of Hawaiian words and phrases, we worked with our hands and bodies while learning from our hosts, we had a frightening encounter with a wildfire one evening, we watched the sunset and saw the stars from Mauna Kea, we went surfing near Kona and swam at night with manta rays, we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch Kilauea erupting at night, and we built some bonds that I hope for the students will last for many years to come.
That’s a lot of ground to cover in just thirteen days, and it really was a wild ride.
We made a clockwise route around the Big Island, working in the Kohala Field System and a school garden near Waimea, taking some time to explore around Hilo and Mauna Kea, getting down to Volcanoes National Park and working in a historical fishing village as well as near the green sand beach in the south, and then making our way back around to Kona in the west.
Mālama ʻĀina.
A Hawaiian phrase that means “to care for, to honor, the land.”
On every Putney Student Travel trip, we have conversations with the students about the differences between being a traveler and being a tourist. Being a tourist isn’t necessarily bad. It often means going on vacation to a place to see a little bit while mostly just relaxing and enjoying the sites. But the tourist mindset also leads people to feel like they owe nothing to the lands and people they visit, that they can behave as they wish (even if that includes being belligerent or stupidly drunk), or to dishonor themselves and the land by tossing their trash anywhere, speaking loudly in places of silence, and expecting special treatment or entitlement. The concept of being a traveler is one we imbue with the notion of respect for the land and the people and the life of the places we visit. Travelers want the experience to be full and deep and understand that there may be pleasantries, customs, and comforts from their daily lives that they can’t expect when traveling. A traveler experiences Mālama ʻĀina in action wherever they happen to be.
If you’re interested in possibly sending your own middle school student on this trip in the future (or if you’re a student considering the trip yourself), feel free to reach out with any questions about it. There’s also a bunch of info on the website.
It was an epic trip, especially mixing our service learning experiences with things like the terror of evacuating due to wildfire, the awe of seeing the volcano erupt, and the peaceful moments across the entire island.
Beyond having some incredible students, a fantastic co-leader, and all of the memories we made together, I think the two most wild experiences from this trip, for me, were the eruption of the volcano and snorkeling with manta rays.
Remember, friends, life is meant to be lived. Get out there are experience something!
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