Maria Lumpkin is the Director of Student Life and Engagement at Spelman College. Her husband, Corey, is the Program Manager of the Public Health Sciences Institute at Morehouse College. Together, they take students all over the world with EF College Study Tours.
Spelman and Morehouse colleges are part of the largest consortium of historically black institutions of higher learning in the world. Corey has taught courses in public health and health-care administration at the collegiate level. Maria has lectured in leadership and urban education administration.
On their next educational adventure, Maria and Corey (pictured above on their last EF tour to Egypt) are traveling with students to Japan. In the Group Leader Spotlight, Maria talks about providing travel opportunities to their students, how to recruit travelers and her ideal convention destination.
With 15 EF tours and nine convention tours under her belt, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Carolyn Sanders, a physical education teacher at Bill Reed Middle School in Loveland, Colorado, has visited 40 countries with EF.
Besides traveling to every continent (yes, she used her EF Global Points to take a trip to Antarctica!), she’s also met some of her closest friends through EF.
In the Group Leader Spotlight, Carolyn recaps some of her favorite travel adventures and talks about how she and some other EF Group Leaders once created their own EF convention to Thunder Bay, Canada.
From attending a Wiccan wedding at Stonehenge to bribing a housekeeper to let her see the suite where Agatha Christie wrote her novels, Linda Piccolo has had her fair share of adventures while traveling abroad with her students on EF tours.
The high school English and theater teacher from Montana has even been inspired by her travels to write a play, which was published and performed by one of her drama classes last year.
In this installment of the Group Leader Spotlight, Linda shares some of her experiences, describes how important travel is for students and hints at her next travel-inspired play.
It can happen at any point in life, but once you’ve been bitten by the travel bug, it’s hard to sit still. And with four trips on the horizon, Dan Ware—a history and geography teacher at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri—is doing anything but that.
Whether he’s traveling on an educational tour to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam or exploring Austria, Germany and Switzerland, Dan understands the importance of the lessons that take place outside of the classroom. To integrate his tours into his classroom lessons, he takes advantage of the credit option EF offers and also makes sure to teach his students some of the life skills they’ll need for traveling abroad at his pre-tour meetings.
Over the years, Dan (pictured above on a school visit in Kenya) has learned a few tricks for holding a successful recruitment, too. He shares some of his secrets:
This is the 320th post of 2008 at Following the Equator, and we decided to commemorate our blog's first full calendar year with a top-10 list of favorite posts.
We had a lot of stories, videos, photos, interviews, tips and perspectives about educational travel. We launched some regular weekly features, including our Tip of the Week and Photo of the Week. We debuted Life on Tour, introduced EF on YouTube and EF on Facebook and promoted the EF Tours group on Flickr (above). And, along the way, we encountered a lot of inspiring travelers.
Following the Equator also was nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award and finished fifth out of 1,177 blogs for Best Travel Blog. Thank you to everyone who supported our blog in 2008 by voting, reading, sharing, commenting and subscribing. We're looking forward to an even more successful 2009.
EF Group Leader Joyce Schaller, a high school English teacher from Nokesville, Virginia, knows there is nothing quite as exciting as learning about literature by experiencing it firsthand. That's why she takes her students on educational tours with EF.
Joyce—pictured above with her students at Hadrian's Wall in Scotland—took the time to tell us more about why travel is so important for her students, connecting her curriculum to her tours and where she wants to go next:
We finally got a chance to catch up with Matt Borrello, who returned to EF last week after his around-the-world tour.
Matt, a regional sales manager with EF Educational Tours, won an internal EF contest to travel to four of the world's wonders and chose to bring his mother, Lucille, on the whirlwind journey.
Matt told us all about the stunning sights, the wonderful people and the exhausting flights. By our calculation, Matt and his mom traveled nearly 30,000 miles on 12 flights.
"It was fun and exciting," Matt said, "but it was also a challenge because we had 12 different flights to meet."
After circling the globe on a whirlwind tour of the world's wonders, Matt Borrello and his mother, Lucille, have returned safely home. Matt emailed this morning after completing their around-the-world trip with EF:
"I just wanted to let everyone know that I am now back in the United States and arrived home safely.
"Overall, my mother and I had a fantastic experience on this trip, and we are looking forward to sharing those memories with everyone soon.
"Also, it appears that Jetstar has located our luggage and will be sending it back to our home. When the luggage will actually appear, no one knows!"
Matt Borrello and his mother, Lucille, have nearly completed their around-the-world trip with EF. They are in Beijing on the final stop of their world tour. Matt emailed this morning after visiting the Great Wall of China:
"I just wanted to let you know that my mother and I have just finished seeing the Great Wall! It was a terrific experience, and I cannot believe how steep the wall is to walk up. Unfortunately, it was raining while seeing the wall, so it hurt our experience a little bit.
"We also just ate at a very nice restaurant called the Peking Duck. I would have to say it was our best meal on the trip. A chef comes out in front of your table and cuts up an already cooked duck and serves it to you."
That means they've visited the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef and the now Great Wall of China in less than two weeks. Our weary world travelers are headed home soon, and we'll catch up with Matt next week.
When you're traveling around the world in 18 days, you've probably got to expect a bump in the road (or two).
That's been the case with Matt Borrello and his mother, Lucille, who are circling the globe on an around-the-world trip with EF. Matt and his mom have arrived safely in Cairns, Australia, after a couple of hiccups in their itinerary.
Matt called this morning from the Cairo airport, reflecting on their stay in Egypt. Here's what he said about the pyramids, the Cairo Museum and the wonderful people:
They are now flying to New Delhi (via Istanbul, Turkey), and Matt will check in from India.
To follow along at Following the Equator, check back soon or subscribe via an RSS reader or email (in the sidebar on the right). You also can read our original post and see our interactive map.
On the first day of sightseeing of their around-the-world trip with EF, Matt Borrello and his mother, Lucille, braved the Egyptian heat to enter the pyramids, see the Sphinx and visit Memphis.
Hear Matt's take on the tombs, the temps and tomorrow's itinerary:
Keep following along as Matt calls in to Following the Equator. For more details about his trip, check out our original post and our interactive map.
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