By helping to arrange several trips to places as varied as New York City to Albany, S.S. Seward Institute business teacher Barbara Scheibling has given students what their parents have described as “once in a lifetime” experiences.
Scheibling has taken Seward’s top 10 seniors on enriching trips once a month to expand their horizons beyond Orange County and they have included painting pictures on the grounds of the Olana State Historic Site and seeing the musical “Hamilton” on Broadway. In February, they will tour the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park.
These are not the only trips Scheibling has helped to organize. She recently helped to bring students from the school’s newspaper club to Straus News in Chester to see how they produce newspapers and in February some seniors will visit the Universal Technical Institute in New Jersey to see its programs and then go to a car dealership where students from there put their skills to good use.
“Half the day I teach business classes, the other half of my day I’m the career coordinator,” Scheibling said. “I create trips and I create these kinds of experiences for kids.”
Scheibling does not find the task of planning so many trips hard because she knows many people from varied organizations who help her out.
“I have a lot of contacts from being involved in so many things,” she explained. “I like the challenge, they tell me they need something and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m on it.’”
Another recent highlight came when students in the school’s Civics class and Youth in Government club took a trip to the United Nations where students experienced rather unique moments.
“There was actually a Security Council meeting behind the wall of the room we were in,” Elizabeth Scheuermann recalled. “It was pretty cool to be there at the same time as a confidential meeting.”
Angelina Rodriguez enjoyed visiting the various delegation rooms during the visit. “I found learning about the history of the different rooms and which countries donated very interesting,” Rodriguez said.
Even Scheibling was blown away by what she saw.
“I learned so much that day it was crazy,” Scheibling recalled. “We had an amazing tour.”