Over the course of summer 2010, Dominion students will be traveling all over the world in pursuit of knowledge and new experiences. Russia, Singapore, Egypt, and India will all be receiving students from Sterling, Virginia.

            Three different programs are responsible for the students’ trips. National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) through the U.S. Department of State is sending Junior Gabi Guzman to Russia, Senior Jeff Lloyd to Egypt, and Junior Alex Shofe to India. The Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Summit in Singapore (APYLS) is receiving Juniors Jennifer Klemens, Matt Sullivan, and Barbara Rion, and juniors from the Academy of Science, Estelle Gong and Gabi Guzman, will also be traveling to Singapore later in the summer.

            NSLI-Y is a state-sponsored trip. “The purpose is to learn a critical language that the U.S. is especially going to need. It was founded by a guy who wanted to rebuild America’s image with countries that we’ve had conflicts with in the past,” said Shofe.  Students participating in the program will go on a six to seven week trip of cultural immersion.

            In order to be chosen, Guzman, Shofe, and Lloyd had to “write a lot of essays and answer questions, and we had to get a really intense teacher recommendation and parent recommendation. And we had to get medical tests just to apply,” said Guzman. Once they were announced as semi-finalists, the three students had to go to interviews as a final assessment of their abilities.

            Despite the immense differences between Russia, Egypt, and India, the students will be participating in similarly structured programs. “I’ll be going to class five times a week for four to five hours, and I’ll be doing field trips, immersing myself in Egyptian culture,” said Lloyd.

            To prepare for the trip, the students have had several group conference calls to familiarize themselves with the program and the other students, as well as any other initiatives they have chosen to take. “I picked up The Idiot’s Guide to Arabic and a travel guide to Egypt,” said Lloyd, who will be missing most of his senior summer, but said, “That was one of the tough decisions I had to make. Did I want to stay home with my friends or see the world?...It’s an opportunity you can’t turn down.”

            Guzman, Shofe, and Lloyd all agree that what they are looking forward to most is experiencing an alternate culture. “I hope to actually experience Delhi [India] because when I went there in November, I was in a more controlled environment,” said Shofe, referring to the exchange trip she went on in the fall of 2009.  

            In contrast, the APYLS trip is far shorter, but just as educational an experience for students, although in different ways. “It’s a ten-day trip to Singapore that has a variety of visiting different locations in Singapore, engaging in dialogue with other students, and gaining perspectives from other students around the world,” said Jennifer Rodgers, the chaperone for the trip.

            Students were selected based on “[the] best leaders and the most academically motivated”, along with an application process, said Rodgers.

            While in Singapore, “[students] live in a dormitory with roommates from other countries, and have a variety of activities that allow them to see and learn about Singapore and other countries,” said Rodgers.

            “I hope to gain a better understanding of how people form their opinions based on where they grew up,” said Klemens. The three students will be hosted at The Hwa Chong Institute.

            Two of the most unique elements of the trip are the cultural exhibition at the end of the summit and the access the students will have to Singapore’s officials. Each country’s students will prepare a demonstration of their country’s culture to share with the other students attending. All of the students will also be given the opportunity to have tea with the president of Singapore.

            The AOS trip, while also to Singapore, is formed around distinctly different goals. “[The purpose is] mainly to…reach out and do research internationally,” said Gong. Students will be traveling to Singapore at the end of the summer for approximately eleven days to conduct research in Singapore.

            “Each [research] pair here has another pair there, so there are six teams of four,” said Gong. Gong and her research partner have been studying the effects of alligator blood on cancer cells. “[Alligators] have really strong immune systems and don’t really get cancer, so we’re going to try to find out why. We grow cancer cells with plasma and with alligator blood and measure their growth and life/death rate.”

            Each set of partners, Singaporean and Dominion, has another pair that is performing a project complementary to their own. For Gong and her partner, their Singaporean partners have been studying the effects of horseshoe crab blood on cancer cells.

            Just like the other summer trips, Gong wants to experience the culture and learn something new.“I really hope to get some really good results from this research because it’s great to get something tangible from your research…also to get something from the new cultures of a rising country. I love traveling internationally,” she said.

            Despite the vast differences among Russia, India, Egypt, and Singapore, Dominion students will be traveling to all four locales this summer in order to expand their horizons and gain new global perspectives for the future.