Twenty-two Maumee Valley Country Day School students, grades 9-12, will travel to Cuba as part of their
January intensive. During this trip, entitled “Cuban Immersion: Justice in a Socialist Country,” the
students will study justice as a philosophy, Cuban-U.S. relations, Cuban history and Cuban culture,
traditions and governmental systems and much more.
“A key part of our school’s mission is to prepare our students to become global citizens. We want our
students to be aware of various cultures and to be savvy about the ways of the world so that our
students are prepared to compete in the global exchange of ideas and commerce. One of the ways we do
this is by providing students with international travel experiences.
“Going to Cuba at this time, at the dawn of the opening of the Cuban society, is a particularly exciting
opportunity to learn about a society that has largely been insulated from American cultural influences
for the past half century,” said Head of School Gary Boehm.
The nine-day trip will take students to Havana, Las Terrazas, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Topes de Collantes,
and Santa Clara. Their travels will include a visit to a coffee plantation, and a park that is home to
190 species of birds, 31 types of reptiles and 12 types of mammals. There will be a nature hike through
the Sierra del Escambray, Cuba’s second-largest mountain range, an area of caves, rivers, canyons,
waterfalls, grottos and crystal clear water.
Just a few of the subjects the students will study are Cuba’s colonial past, organic farming, slavery in
Cuba and the Caribbean, the revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, and women’s rights in Cuba.
The arts will be explored with visits to museums, the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte (National School of the
Arts), meetings with artists, students and professors and free time in the Craft Market. They will also
take a dance class with local teachers.
Local students making the trip include Alaina Foster, Rossford; Brandon Peek, Bowling Green; and Melisa
Slye, Precia Soram and Jonika Wells, all of Perrysburg.