From Nov. 19-21, the eleventh graders and environmental science class enjoyed a stay at Tremont, a retreat in the Appalachian mountains. Starting off the day at 5 a.m., they took a seven hour bus drive to get there. Upon arrival, they were separated into Group A and Group B, with the goal of learning more about the environment in which they live and grade-level bonding.

I spoke with the organizer of this trip, Ms. O’Gorman, and asked her if anything was different this year from previous years. 

“It bridged some, but not as much as I wanted it to”, O’Gorman said, referring to the grade’s cohesion. This year it was more socially divided by gender; the girls and boy groups became more cohesive within themselves, but not with each other.

Denise O’Gorman also pointed out how the lunches between the students and teachers were different meals entirely. The first meal, for example, was a pimento cheese croissant for the teachers and chicken nuggets for the students, “I’m not a pimento cheese person—give me the nuggets”, said O’Gorman.

In an interview, Ronnie Smollen, a twelfth grader in APES, questioned why Ryan Best and an elementary teacher joined them if they didn’t have connections to either the class or the grade.

Expanding upon the trip, Ronnie shared that although she didn’t enjoy the food nor the restricted area they had to roam around during free time, she found the stargazing at the graveyard, “quiet and really nice”, and the bushwalking down the mountainside to be a memorable experience from the trip.