Pasco Tribune
Class Trip Destined For British Isles
GEOFF FOX
Published: November 15, 2008
ST. LEO - It's one thing to learn about artists and writers from Ireland and England in a classroom or on a computer.Published: November 15, 2008
It's something else to be there.
Saint Leo University instructors Elisabeth Aikens and Karen Bryant say their students will learn better by traveling to the places William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and William Butler Yeats called home.
On Friday, Aikens, an English instructor, and Bryant, who teaches fine arts, will accompany 25 students on a nine-day trip to the British Isles, where they plan to visit museums, castles, historic landmarks and the homes of famous figures.
"They read in class and break down the academic elements, but it's better when you can actually see the landscape that inspired the writing and get a sense of who these people were," Aikens said.
The trip will cost about $2,500 per person. The group is expected to spend nights in Dublin, Ireland; London; and one night in Wales. They are scheduled to visit Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral and a national park in Snowdonia in North Wales, among other sites.
The group returns Nov. 29.
"A lot of the students from the millennial generation seem to really respond much better to actually going through these places rather than just seeing them or reading about them, or taking a virtual tour," Bryant said.
"They haven't traveled as much as you would expect."
Aikens and Bryant promised to return with plenty of photographs.
"I think we both have a case of wanderlust ourselves," Aikens said.
Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.