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2008 CKM Africa Trip
McClatchy High School’s annual summer trip to Africa was featured on NBC’s Today Show on September 22, 2008, giving national exposure to the school and the opportunities for academic enrichment that HISP actively promotes.
The segment can be viewed by clicking: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9521376. It was hosted by NBC Travel Editor Peter Greenburg and focused on U.S. high schools offering amazing travel experiences for their students. McClatchy is the third school in the segment.
2008 was the third consecutive summer that McClatchy offered the trip, which is open to all students in the school although the majority of participants have been HISP students. This year, a total of 15 students traveled to Ghana with two teacher chaperones, Mr. Nate Starace, a social studies teacher and Mr. Jeremy Predko, who previously taught social studies at CKM and is now assigned to Hiram Johnson High School.
The mission of the trip is to promote peace and conflict resolution through education and cross-cultural exchanges. The trip was organized under the direction of Dr. Ernest Uwazie, a Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento. Students traveled on an early morning walking safari at Mole, visited orphanages, performed five days of community service at a school at Agona-Swedru, participated in cross-cultural discussions and met a government dignitary, as well as visited more typical tourist sites such as Wli Waterfalls and the Slave Dungeons of Cape Coast. The full itinerary can be viewed at www.afripeace.org website.
Back row left to right: Nate Starace, Ben Freedlander, Robert Zuniga, Patrick Redford, Terren Wing, Ryan Thalken, Lauren Mackey, Jeremy Predko.
Middle row: Kelsey Macrae, Kalen Bergado, Ashley Stockwell, Naomi Stern, Lucy Toyama, Taylor Chang.
This orphanage was in Western Ghana where the students used funds to purchase sand, cement and blocks to finish the first floor of a new building
that was needed because of the high numbers of children.
At Wli Waterfalls, left to right: Mikaela Nishita, Lucy Toyama, Lindsay Taylor, Rachel Busch and Lauren Mackey.
Storytime around the campfire in Tafi Atome, in Eastern Ghana.
This fun photo, taken by a student, shows CKM Teacher Mr. Starace feeding a monkey in Tafi Atome in Eastern Ghana.
The monkeys in Tafi Atome have become quite domesticated and are not timid of humans.
This beautiful photograph of Boti Waterfalls was taken by a student on the trip.