Benefits of GCW

A week of no school, no tests, and no stress sounds like heaven, right? Well, that is exactly what Global Citizenship Week (GCW) provides. While most people look forward to GCW in order to get out of school for an entire week, the rewards of GCW are so much more than that – they are ones you will cherish for the rest of your life. Here are the top 3 important outcomes of GCW.

1. Friendship/Teacher Bonds:

Whether you planned your trip with your friends or signed up alone, it is inevitable that you will not be familiar with everyone during the first few meetings. 

At this point, most of you may start thinking that your GCW is not going to be as fun. But, throughout the week, not only will you get closer to your group of friends, but you will forge new friendships with different people from different grades. It does not matter if you are an upperclassmen or underclassmen, everyone will have a special bond afterwards.

Not only with students, but you will also get to know your chaperones better, as you get to know them as a person and their passions outside of the classroom. Juniors and Seniors, if you have your college counselors on the trip, be sure to get on their good side (*wink, wink) because they are the ones who will write a recommendation letter for you.

All jokes aside, GCW is about forging new friendships, rekindling old friendships, and getting closer to your current ones. 

2. Becoming Independent

When we go on vacations and trips, we usually travel with our parents. In GCW, you are away from all the nagging of your parents, and get to make choices for yourself. You can be independent both as a student and as a traveler. No one is going to remind you about your phone, your towel, or sweaters. This is good preparation for anyone who is planning to attend a summer school where you stay at dorms or the seniors heading off to university soon.

Most GCWs include moving around multiple times during the course of the trip, so you need to know how to pack like a backpacker and have amazing organization skills to remember everything. Let us cross our fingers and hope we do not lose anything in our future GCWs.

3. Learning about the world around you

“GCW is a good opportunity to reconnect with the cultures and environments that students lose touch with in the hustle of daily life. It is a chance to experience the world around them with the people they love,” Maggie Chao (11) stated. That is a sentiment that many people agree with, as we live in a world where we are ruled by social media and technology. GCW allows us to reconnect with nature and the vibrant cultures of the countries we travel to, as well as our host country Thailand. You get to expand on your knowledge of the environment and really explore the hidden gems of the country.

Sadly, we are back in school now and we are left reminiscing of the memories made on GCW. But on the bright side, all of us can still could hang out with our friends from GCW. Feel free to tell us your favourite moments from GCW in the comments section below!