May 30, 2008

Cowley students travel to London, earn college credit

Fourteen Cowley College students along with instructors Scott MacLaughlin and Jamison Rhoads recently returned from an educational trip to London.

Students in the Travel for College Credit class left for London on May 22 and returned May 27. While in London, the group was able to visit several of the major sites and learned about the English culture and history. The trip was planned through Education First Tours.

Cowley students had an opportunity to see theatre productions of Jersey Boys, Avenue Q, Women in Black, and Wicked.

“This provided them an opportunity to see Broadway style shows,” MacLaughlin said. “The students were able to break out into groups so if they didn’t want to go to a show they were able to see and do what they wanted.”

The group also had a chance to visit Westminster Abbey, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and Windsor Castle.
“We got exposed to over 1,000 years of English history,” MacLaughlin said. “All of the students had a really good time. For a lot of them it was a once in a lifetime trip.”

Along with the trip to London, MacLaughlin has had an opportunity to take students on trips to Chicago and New York.

“I would really like to open a travel class like this every year,” MacLaughlin said. “I love exposing students to new things.”

Students that took part in the trip were, Andy Rouse, Paul Paxson, Joe Lauer, Bethany Schmidt, Sean Rethmeier, Jesse Davis, Amber Roberts, John David McDonald, Amber Roberts, Will Brantley, Nick Hammel, Rhoda MacLaughlin, Maria Goetz and Josh Gerstenkorn.