Brentwood High School Students Take on Peru

Published August 10, 2016

It’s not your typical vacation, but nearly two dozen Brentwood High School students experienced the trip of a lifetime when they visited South America this summer. It was part of a nine-day service learning tour called “Exploring Art, Culture and Service in Peru.”

BHS English teacher Kate Urmy led the group of six seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and two freshman all over Peru. The trip included visits to Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco and the Andes Mountains.

“The trip was an amazing experience for the students,” said Urmy. ” They had the opportunity to experience a different culture and to serve within that culture.”

Students had a chance to take in the sights of the country while exploring the markets, enjoying the local cuisine and even spending two days working on a local building for the Awamaki project, a Peruvian nonprofit that empowers rural Andean women by helping them establish self-sustaining cooperatives.

Stops along the tour included the Sacred Land of the Incas, the San Francisco Monastery, the Larco Museum, the Sacsayhuaman citadel and a ceramics workshop in Urubamba.

Urmy said the trip was a major success and she plans to develop it even further.

“I plan to expand the travel opportunities for BHS students,” she said. “I will take at least 1-2 trips every summer and possibly a spring break trip in the future. Next summer, we are going to Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Prague to study WWII and the Holocaust.”