Summer can be a time to relax, but it can also be a time to explore new places and change your life.

For a number of WS students, summer had almost nothing to do with sleeping in until noon or spending all day at the pool or in front of the TV. Instead, this time was replaced with a summer of globetrotting. The reasons for these international excursions could range anywhere from mission trips with a church or organization to travels taken just for the sheer experience of seeing the rest of the world.

Juniors Morgan Akers and Michelle Yeboah were just a few of these worldly students.

Ghana was Yeboah’s destination – pretty impressive for a first international trip. She and her family spent three weeks there, visiting family and some property they own.

“I got to visit where my parents were born and grew up, where they went to school, and family members,” said Yeboah, “We also visited one of the houses my dad is building.”

The experience was surely something she could not have gotten anywhere else.  Everything she saw and everyone she interacted with made a difference to her life. She was able to see an area she had never seen before which was out of the realm of her own knowledge.

“My favorite part of the trip was when we went canopy walking,” said Yeboah, “We got to walk on top of high trees.”

Akers’ two-week mission trip to Guatemala with her church was an extremely life-altering experience, as well.

“The first week, we worked with an organization called Aselsi in the mountains of Guatemala,” said Akers.

Her team and the Spanish-speaking group worked hard helping people who don’t have an education or much financial stability but who live in a society full of culture.

“We couldn’t talk to each other because of the language barrier,” said Akers, “but we were there for the same reason.”

During their second week, Akers and the rest of her mission group spent their time in the very run-down Guatemala City. They built a house for a family living very near the city dump, which, for people in that situation, is a way of providing for their families. They also spent a lot of their time working with Guatemalan children.

“The relationships were the best part,” said Akers, “the Guatemalan people [we worked with] were so friendly and welcoming. They loved us.”

Senior Hannah Ulrich’s trip was also through her church. They went to Nicaragua to assist the people in a village in need of health and sanitation training. The knowledge they gave to the villagers may very well have changed their lives, as they now have methods of disease prevention and ways to improve their well-being.

“We drilled a well,” said Ulrich, “and gave hygiene lessons to the people in the village, like how to properly wash their hands and brush their teeth. We also taught them how to take care of the well.”

International trips such as these can really have a great effect on the people who take them and bring weeks of enjoyment.

“It was a great experience,” said Ulrich, “it’s definitely something that I want to do again.”