Wednesday, June 18, 2014 0 comments

Malik's Reflection: 2014 TYTT Co-Recipient


A few things I have gained through going through application process twice is perseverance. I had a strong desire to win. After losing the first time I realized that I really had to utilize my time into perfecting my assignments and not procrastinating. This was a good craft to perfect because its comes up in life all the time.  Procrastination always played a big role in my daily life style, and after going through this process I felt like not only did I improve on not procrastinating, but I learned through perseverance I can conquer any task at hand. In preparation for the trip we had meetings and gained a lot of information on Roman history. Through the required reading in preparation for the trip I learned that Bernini and Borromini basically framed the foundations of Baroque for Rome. Those two artists were basically involved with everything.  Also we researched a lot on the potential walks we were going to participate in while in Italy. It  was cool because I felt I was prepared for the content the docents would teach us before they explained it. 


Overall I feel like this trip had really changed me as a person. Even though I had the chance to taste the most amazing food In the world I still had this strange attraction to art. Returning back from Rome I just didn't  see things the same way. When I look at building it's nothing compared to the ones in Rome. And when I eat pizza or pasta or even just drinking water I realize it's just not the same as Rome. And in all honesty I really miss it and I really want to go back because I had a true connection with everything I learned. Having the chance to travel to a whole different country at such a young age has really impacted me. This experience will live with me forever, and all the knowledge I acquired will forever remain in my mind. 

After the trip we made reflective videos of what we sought most interesting this also was a good lesson for the future. Now I'm more familiar with Macs and Final Cut Pro. I know the ins and outs of the audio and video for apple computers now.



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Katie's Video Blog

While Katie was in Rome in 2008 she created a video blog giving an overview of her experience with Context Travel. Katie was the first Sac High student to earn the Transforming Youth Through Travel Scholarship.


Check out her video project on our TYTT Youtube channel.


Leave a comment!


Tuesday, June 17, 2014 0 comments

Relaxing and Enjoying the City

August 27, 2008




Today was perfect; after feeling the effects of information overload from all the amazing tours of this past week, we got to relax and enjoy the Borghese gallery, in which we learned such a great amount about Caravaggio and Bernini and Raphael. We then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city, trying to find our way to some famous sites before we have to head back home.

My favorite part of the experience at the Galleria Borghese was our docent. She was absolutely marvelous at explaining all the history behind the famous sculptures by Bernini, and I was sort of laughing to myself at all the folks walking around with a headset listening to an automated explanation of the artwork. We then got to sit down with our docent, who is an art conservationist, to learn all about her fascinating career. I didn’t realize it was as much dedicated schooling as becoming a doctor or lawyer. Not only must you know your art history, but you have to excel in chemistry and the fine arts and technique and so much more. It was fascinating to hear her stories of what its like to work here in Italy, one of the art capitals of the world.
After exploring the lovely grounds of the Borghese Villa we set out to explore. We briefly visited Santa Maria del Popolo in hopes to see the famous “Conversion of St. Paul” by Caravaggio, but we went at 2pm when the church was taking its afternoon break. Like I mentioned awhile back, things just work differently here in Italy. From there we did something extremely exciting to me—we visited the Spanish Steps. The reason that I love them so much is because I know them from “Roman Holiday” starring Gregory Peck, and my favorite, Audrey Hepburn. It’s interesting to me how things become so much more personal when we recognize them, relating it back to prior experiences that touched us in some form or another. It’s a great emotional connection. I also got to film the introduction to the documentary of my trip here on the Spanish Steps, with all the tourists staring, probably wondering who I was.


Finally, in the evening we had a wonderful dinner party with all the docents and myself and my chaperone on the terrace above our apartment. I was so blessed to be around such great minds. All of them are the top of the line in their fields of study but then they are such down to earth and personable people. It was a great way to finish up the week. And, I also realized how much I am going to miss the incredible Italian cuisine!
Ciao!

Katie Estabrook (Hagstrom)
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A Day I'll Never Forget

August 26, 2008



When I say that today changed my life, I mean it. The artwork I saw; the emotions I experienced, the conversations I had, they are things I will never forget. They day began early, out of the apartment by 8, a quick café latte and off to the entrance of Vatican City by 8:45.
Our first tour was three hours in St. Peter’s Basilica. And although that is probably all the learning we could handle without our heads exploding, it felt like not enough time. The church has so much history of the Christian church and the Popes and the artists who were commissioned to design it and create art for it. For those who don’t know, St. Peter’s was built on the site where the Apostle Peter was said to have been martyred. Going to the church, I hadn’t known that Bramante was the architect, Bernini designed the piazza, and that Michelangelo designed the dome; and it was fun to realize that it was all dedicated that man who denied Jesus three times, but then became “the rock on which [Christ] would build [his] church.” Walking inside the basilica is stunning; the dedication that went into creating such a magnificent structure is mind blowing.
After a short break to process our thoughts, and a quick bite to eat of fine Italian cuisine, we headed out for the Vatican museums. Now this was the one I was waiting for. My favorite piece of art is in there and I had butterflies in my stomach.


Going through the Vatican collection was really great because when people go to the Vatican all you hear about is the Raphael and the Michelangelo pieces. But all through the museum are fabulous altarpieces and sculptures and paintings by great artists all throughout history. There was definitely a lot more to it than I had thought and it was took us a good two hours to learn about only a fraction of the collection. Finally we moved into the rooms of Raphael, my favorite painter. The Pope had commissioned him to paint his waiting room, his personal room, his library, etc.—and Raphael truly outdid himself. My absolute favorite piece is his School of Athens in which you see a variety of different scholars and great minds from history. I did a report last year in school on the piece, and after today I feel like I barely scraped the surface in my research. That’s what is so amazing about art history. There is not always one right interpretation of the meaning of a work of art. I had my own theories formed, but then I heard the theories of our docent, as well as those of another scholar from England, I realized that none of us are necessarily correct. We can only research and discuss the meaning, but it is so much fun to do so!


Next of course was the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted the ceiling at age 30 and the Last Judgment wall was painted by him at age 60. I’m thinking that the papacy liked his work. As I entered, whatever the docent leading our group said, I did not hear. I had to walk to the bench and sit down. As my eyes filled with tears, I opened my journal and wrote, because I knew this would be a moment I would never be able to experience again. Here’s what I wrote, “The Last Judgment in real life! My God! I can hardly write this now because my hand is shaking so much. I can hardly explain what I am feeling right now. Joy, awe, reverence, and disbelief in being here. I am here, in the same room where Michelangelo worked for so many years, and I am speechless.” The emotions I experienced were so new to me I could barely speak the whole way home. What a day!
Also, thanks to all of you who are writing comments to these blogs, they are really encouraging for me to read.
Ciao!

Katie Estabrook (Hagstrom)
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Layers Upon Layers of History

August 25, 2008



It’s crazy to think I have only been in Rome for 4 days! It feels like it’s been over a week. I’m seeing so much and learning so much and experiencing so much that it’s hard to take it all in much less even believe it’s all really happening.
Today was amazing. I learned so much about the history of the city in relation to the church, and Constantine, and the Rise and Fall of the Empire. But what really stuck out to me today was the fact that this city is truly unlike any city in the entire world. It is so incredibly unique in its history. For most places, all the history is in books. In Rome, it’s there in the physical. Only in Rome can you walk into an 18th-century church and then go downstairs to a 4th-century church. Someone was digging a grave next to the church and their hole opened up into a huge chamber that turned out to be just another ancient basilica. And  what is even crazier is that below that, they found more. There was a 1st-century villa and then a public building, which was most likely the mint. And if you were to keep digging there would only be more and more layers.
In Rome, they didn’t demolish one building and then build another, they just filled in the old with rubble and built more atop it. I find it mind boggling that it is the same everywhere in the city. You could essentially dig anywhere and find more and more history. That is why it’s so difficult for them to build a subway. They already have two but they were trying to build another one recently and found  huge marble steps buried in the ground. How incredible is that?
Another way that we saw history was passed on was through frescos. One place we visited, which is now a convent, had a chamber with a story of Constantine wrapped around the ceiling in fresco. Although most of the story is now known to be false, it was popular belief at the time, and that’s how things would be passed on, through painting. Especially since many people could not read or write.

In the evening we once again had our Italian Language workshop. Each time we have this class I get a new perspective on something vitally important. Tonight it was the amount of influence language in Italy has had on its history and its culture. Andrea shared with us all the original languages that varied according to region, then he showed us what happened when Rome expanded and  took on Latin as its model language. We saw how local vernaculars combined with Latin and formed new languages. Italy has gone through so many language transitions back and forth  that it is hard to know what the model language is for the country. And it’s very interesting to learn that even Italians sometimes can’t understand each other if they are from different regions.
What a unique country this is! We are having an incredible time here and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning to see St. Peters and the Vatican! Ciao!

Katie Estabrook (Hagstrom)
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Standing Amongst History

August 24, 2008


Now that we are a little more familiar with the way things work here, particularly the bus system, transit around Rome is going quite smoothly. We are learning to adapt and find our way around, mostly by trial and error.
Our tour today was the Capitoline museums. I think one of the biggest things for me was seeing the excavated findings of Constantine. In the first courtyard that I walked into I saw a giant head, arm, hand and foot. Not pieced together, but just arranged there in the court in their own pieces. What got me was the fact that people really had statues of themselves made of such grandiose size. And the other thing was that I was trying to think of how amazing it would be to be the one who unearthed such a structure. How amazing to find a glorious portrait of such an infamous man. Its things like this statue that made Constantine eternal and godlike.
I also learned a ton about Rome’s history about how it began, the Roman Triad, and the rein of the many emperors. We saw the famous she-wolf and the suckling infants below of Romulus and Remus. To see the bronze sculpture that shows the legend of the founding of the great city of Rome is truly wonderful. Its not that the statue is worshiped, but rather it’s a sign to the people to remind them of their history as a city divinely appointed for greatness.
One of the most interesting things I learned about was the Triad of the gods Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva and how the three worked in perfect harmony. The most powerful part of the tour was in the room of the museum where parts of the original foundation of the temple of Jupiter remained. We were standing in what was the substructure of the largest temple in Rome. Its like there was so much history there, and we weren’t just standing in a place where something great used to be, we were standing there with the remains of the original building. My breath was taken away just thinking about where I was standing in context to the story of Rome. The temple of Jupiter was such a monumental structure for the people in and around Rome in ancient times and there I was, right alongside history.
As far as emperors go, it’s really easy to get confused at all the different ones and to try and keep a timeline of when and for how long they all ruled. So today I didn’t learn about all of them, but I learned important things about emperors that really made changes in the empire or brought new ideas. I found the tour through Context: Travel not just to be a boring list of the rulers, but rather a great deal of interesting facts about a few of them, which kept me interested and wanting to learn more. And that I think it is key; to make the ancient people alive and show how they were like people today. In ancient times men were power thirsty, they loved, they committed adultery, they conquered, they worked, they educated themselves, and they are just like us in many ways.


In the evening we went for a passeggiata, or stroll, with two marvelous docents who answered every question we had about Rome’s history and showed us to notice key things throughout the city that we wouldn’t have paid attention to otherwise. Traveling with someone who has lived here and studied the past of this city can truly open your eyes and show you parts of the city that general tourists aren’t lucky enough to see.
With the way things are going so far, I’m looking forward to the upcoming days with such great anticipation.

Katie Estabrook (Hagstrom)
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DID I REALLY JUST SEE THE COLOSSEUM?!

August 23, 2008



Today was unreal. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be here in Rome. I have experienced things in a single day that many people don’t get to experience in their lifetime.
The day began with a bit more culture shock. We needed to buy some bus tickets to take us to the Colusseum, but when we got to the shop where we were told we could purchase them, it was closed. It was already 8:00 in the morning and we had figured everything would be open by then; but once again, things are different in Italy. Not every store is open at the crack of dawn and closes at midnight. People are more relaxed and come to find out, many of the shops close for siesta right in the middle of the day! This is so different from our American culture where things are open practically all day as to bring in the greatest profit. So, we didn’t have tickets had to call a cab.
Driving in the cab I had my video camera and was filming out the window, but all of the sudden Kim nudged me and said, “look.” I put down my camera and looked straight ahead. There it was, the Flavian Amphitheater, also known as the Colosseum. I was breathless. To think that I really saw the Colosseum up close and in person has still got me in shock. The fact that the structure was built in less than ten years, before all of our modern technology, is absolutely remarkable. My favorite thing about the Colosseum tour was learning whether or not all those rumors I had heard were true or not. Come to find out they really did fill the basin with water and re-enact battle scenes, and they in fact, did not murder Christians by the hundreds, that is a myth. The Romans were violent, but they were not inhumane. It was interesting to learn about how history is recorded and its not always accurate depending on who the source is.
As we are becoming more accustomed to life here, we stopped at our local store for some dinner. We bought bread, olive spread, Gouda cheese and my favorite, prosciutto, a cured meat that tastes absolutely heavenly.  We made our own little sandwiches and felt very Italian. Later in the day we headed out for our Italian Language workshop with Andrea. What an amazing new perspective on language and Italian culture. Andrea brought to us an approach for learning Italian like I had never heard before. He didn’t jump right into grammar or basic sentences or salutations, because he knew that learning how to say “where is the bathroom?” would do you no good if you couldn’t understand the answer. So, he taught us about the way Italian is similar to English in that they both have Latin roots. We began to compare similarities and differences with the words and the sounds. Learning from Andrea makes me realize how as Americans we try to talk so fast because we don’t appreciate our language; we are more focused on getting things done. As Italians, they view every single consonant and vowel as essential to the word. Italian spoken by an Italian is like music. After this we were so pumped up about learning the language that we practiced on everyone we could on the way home.


After getting off the bus we got an extra little treat that we weren’t expecting. It’s Saturday night in Italy, and we had totally forgotten about the night-life! We walked through the market and bought jewelry and talked to people. We met two young men both from Egypt who were most interesting and made great interviewees for my documentary. And the night didn’t stop there. We headed to the festival tents set up along the river by our apartment. We saw some quaint little shops and then a class of dancers learning how to salsa right on the riverfront. How romantic!
I sit here writing this blog just being so thankful that I got the wonderful opportunity to be here and its more than I could have asked for.

Katie Estabrook (Hagstrom)
Friday, June 13, 2014 0 comments

Katie meets Rome as Our First Scholarship Winner in 2008




August 20, 2008

Our grand adventure here in Rome began today at 8:30 am when we arrived in the airport and took a speedy ride through the city to our quaint little Italian apartment in the center of Rome, about 15 minutes walking distance from all the great major landmarks and monuments. We got settled in and then Kim and I set out to explore our surroundings.
We began to realize the cultural differences right away. First we stopped for a quick bite at a street side “ristorante” or restaurant, and since the menus were all in Italian, I just picked a sandwich off the menu and I had no clue what was going to be inside. It turned out to be spinach, mushrooms and cheese, a very healthy choice. Then there was the joy of trying to figure out if we could add a tip on the receipt from a waitress whom we couldn’t understand. From there we headed to a bank to try to get some cash out. Kim inserted her card several times into the machine and entered the amount she wanted, then the machine said take your card out in thirty seconds, but every time she took it out the transaction canceled. So, she tried just leaving it in past the thirty seconds—this was lesson number two for the day. Apparently in Italy if you don’t remove your card in time, the machine eats it, and as you can imagine this freaked us out just a little. Then we walked around to the front of the bank and no one was inside. Well, eventually everything got settled and we got the cash and were able to stop and enjoy a quick cup of superb gelato. It was a bit of a culture shock, but we just began to realize that life is different here and everyone operates on a different system.
From there we headed back to the apartment for a quick power nap to try to defeat our jet lag, and then set out to meet up with our Italian guides Petulia and Jessica. They gave us an impromptu tour that turned out to be incredible. I learned so much about the history of the art in the churches and the buildings themselves. One thing I saw that I was not expecting at all were the paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi. The church was full of paintings, but at the end was a little corner nook with paintings by Caravaggio. Walking up you can only see one painting, and as we were approaching I was telling Jessica how much I loved the Caravaggio painting titled “The Calling of St. Matthew.” Little did I know that as I rounded the corner, there it was, in all its glory. I literally almost fainted because I couldn’t believe that this picture I studied so much in art history class back home was actually there before my eyes. Art truly became alive to me today and I realized that what you see in your textbook is incomparable by all means to the real thing.
From there we went on to see the majestic Pantheon where Raphael, one of my favorite Renaissance painters, was buried. The Pantheon itself was so remarkable and to think that people actually built something so complex so many years ago absolutely blew my mind.
Today was a very overwhelming day, but in the best sense. The information that I took in was priceless, and I’m only more excited for the coming days.
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Taking a Look Back

In an effort to bring all of the scholarship works to one location, we will be posting the blogs written over the past 6 years by student winners here. These blogs are transferred from the Context Travel Foundation blog where they were originally posted. Enjoy reading the experiences of Katie, Bianca, Kathleen, Kaneisha, Trevon, Sharqueya, Devin, Susan, Malik and Myriah as they experience Italy for the first time thanks to the Transforming Youth Through Travel with Context Travel & Sac High.

If you are interested in supporting this scholarship please contact Wendi at weverett@sachigh.org.

Enjoy!


Wednesday, June 11, 2014 0 comments

Myriah's Reflection, a Conclusion to an Amazing Experience




Applying for the Transforming Youth Through Travel Scholarship was one of the most amazing experiences of my young life. I was able to learn and develop qualities about myself that will help me in my future. Even before I left, I learned so much from the application process itself. I had to learn to work in a timely manner, interview for a position, interact with people from all ages and backgrounds. I had to study and read comprehensive material and be able to have an educated discussion about the texts I read. I even had to formulate question ahead of time for the docents before our trip. The prep classes helped me understand the history of Rome so much better by interacting in a conversation about it.  This process also showed me that if you work hard enough for something and persevere through any obstacles,  you will achieve your own success. 
Before I went on this trip to Rome and Naples I only saw my country's beliefs and culture but going to different country made me realize how different America is from Italy. Italy is a vast, warm, friendly, and strangely organic place. To experience so much history in one country is astounding, overwhelming, but a blessing to witness.
This trip transformed me. 

It made me want to travel throughout college and my adult life to experience more adventures in other countries and learn about their culture. And when I came back, having to create a project to describe my experience taught me even more skills. I learned how to use Final Cut Pro, and work on an Apple Computer which is complex on it’s own.  In short, I gained so much from this scholarship and it was a great experience to cap my senior year. It is something I will never forget.

If you know of a student who is willing to work hard and that is professional yet personable person, I highly recommend you to encourage them to apply, just like my fellow teachers encouraged me. tell them to watch my video to see the work that goes into this beautiful opportunity.  
Thank You.  Myriah Catalano


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TYTT Scholarship on Flickr

We are so excited to collect all of the photos from over the past 6 years in one place. You can look through the photos on Flickr either on the photo stream or by albums. Here are some from this years winners Malik, Myriah and chaperone David.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/104065438@N03/










Monday, June 9, 2014 0 comments

TYTT YouTube Channel

We are so excited to share our new YouTube channel just for the Transforming Youth Through Travel Scholarship. You can see and watch all of the video projects from the previous winners and leave comments.  Take a trip to Rome and other Italian cities through the eyes of Sac High Students.



https://www.youtube.com/user/sacphotoeverett

Wendi Everett
TYTT Scholarship Coordinator
 
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