by Ashley Gibson, grade 9
The DCMS Grade 9 boarding school tour was spectacular! We woke up early Sunday, October 16th, 2011 and met at the Rock Sound Airport to begin the journey where we would interview at boarding schools in the U.S. for high school options. From there we went to New Providence where we would soon board our U.S Airways flight to Washington D.C. The flight to Washington was two hours but we were occupied with music and studying for our upcoming SSAT exam.
When we arrived to Washington we drove to Virginia. For that night we stayed in an old faculty house that belonged to St. Margret’s School where two girls interviewed and toured the next day. We then moved on to New Jersey where we stayed at the Maxey’s house. On this journey we stopped in Downtown Philadelphia to try a famous “Philly cheese steak.” We spent two days in New Jersey, toured George, Hill, Church Farm and Solebury schools and enjoyed visits from our friends that are currently in boarding school.
We then made our way to Connecticut, where we stayed for one night and visited Miss Hall’s, Taft, Trinity Pawling and Wilbraham and Monson schools. On to Boston, where we were invited to a little party at Lizzie Ayoub’s house which was really fun. We also spent the night at the house of a former Deep Creek Middle School teacher, Ms. Anderson and former Island School teacher, David Miller. We stayed here most of the trip. The next day we took the challenging SSAT and went to New England a school by the name of Worcester Academy and picked up our former classmate, Aleice Goodman from Lawrence Academy. On Saturday, some students interviewed at Northfield Mount Hermon and some attended a volleyball game at one of the schools we toured. We met another former classmate, Anna McCartney.
Finally, on Sunday we headed to the airport in Boston to fly to Philadelphia where we would return to the Bahamas. It was very sad to leave because we all had such a good time. Altogether it was a great experience and we went to states where we have never traveled before. Hopefully our experience will also result in places at some of these schools for us next year.