Not every teenager gets to go to another country every year for a month but for BHS Sophomores Dan and Selene Welch, that is exactly what they have the opportunity to do.
“My mom is a Latin professor and my dad is a Finance professor,” Selene said.
“My parents teach a class at a university there through a program called Chimba for a month. My dad teaches finance and my mom teaches Greek mythology,” Dan said.
Both their parents were able to attend Oxford University and become Rhodes Scholars. To send in an application to Oxford, applicants need at least a 3.7 GPA and only 7-9% of Americans are accepted. On top of that, less than 5% of students become a Rhode Scholar. It takes academic excellence and character qualities ranging from courage to kindness.
“Sometimes some of the stuff we do is repetitive and boring like my parents do the same trips with their classes every year but we usually do trips on the weekends as a family without the classes and those are fun because they’re always new,” Dan said.
“Some of the places we went to on weekend trips are Romania, Portugal and Morocco,” Selene said.
When their parents are not teaching, they get to go on fun trips and have fun like a vacation instead of just their parents teaching the entire trip.
“On most days we go to campus with them and there’s this room we stay in with all of the other professors’ kids. It has a ping pong table foosball. We usually buy portable wifi,” Dan said.
“We don’t really converse with the Italians,” Selene said.
They have many people they get to talk to and meet in their time in Italy even though they choose not to talk to the Italians. They also have lots to do while their parents teach and they can be on their phones since they are able to buy portable wifi.
“There’s usually two or three plane rides. One is over the ocean so it takes about nine hours and the other two take 2-3 hours,” Dan said.
They have to take 2-9 hour long plane rides. They also have to do that there and back. Italy is 6 hours ahead of the US, so they have to get used to the time and the jet lag.