After 14 years in the classroom, I know some of the moments students remember most happen outside of it. One thing I love most about Dallas for student groups is how often the city surprises them with unexpected, one-of-a-kind experiences.
Travel gives students the chance to step into a new city, encounter different people and perspectives, connect with their peers, and discover interests or experiences they might not encounter in a typical school day.
A City Full of Stories
In one city, students can trace events and ideas that changed politics, technology, business, and human rights.
At The Sixth-Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, students can explore the Presidency of John F. Kennedy and the events surrounding November 22,1963. At the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the September 11 exhibit offers another opportunity to understand another defining moment in US history, while the replica Oval Office brings a piece of presidential history to life.
Experiencing these places and artifacts helps students move from knowing what happened to understanding how those moments continue to shape the world. The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum carries that idea forward, showing how individual choices can shape history and how each generation has a role in what comes next leaving the experience with a positive look ahead.
A Place for Student Performers
For bands, choirs, orchestras, dance teams and theater groups, travel adds another kind of opportunity. Young performers can take what they have practiced at home into a new setting, perform for new audiences and experience professional arts and culture together.
A Dallas itinerary can pair performances, workshops or master classes with history, STEM, arts and culture. With professional football, basketball, hockey and soccer, Dallas makes it easy to add sports to the experience, from catching a game to opportunities for students to perform in professional sports venues.
Expect the Unexpected
Dallas has unexpected innovation stories, too. The integrated circuit? Dallas. 7-Eleven? Dallas. From the technology in the phones in our hands to a brand recognized worldwide, some big ideas started right here.
At MoMoney – The Museum of Money, students can explore a one-of-a-kind interactive experience that takes them from bartering to crypto, with hands-on exhibits and plenty of social-media-worthy photo opportunities along the way.
Students can also step inside one of only two currently open Netflix House locations in the world at Galleria Dallas, then lace up skates on the ice rink. They can catch a youth-friendly comedy show at Stomping Ground, go climbing at Movement or cheer on knights in a joust at Medieval Times. For a different perspective, they can head up Reunion Tower, the iconic glowing ball on the Dallas skyline, for a bird’s-eye view of one of the nation’s largest cities.
Sometimes the city itself is the surprise. Imagine a green park built over a freeway, framed by skyscrapers and surrounded by museums and performance venues. At Klyde Warren Park, students can choose from an assortment of food trucks, play lawn games or catch a performance, with the nation’s largest contiguous urban arts district just steps away. Through walkSTEM, the park and surrounding areas become sites for real-world, inquiry-based STEM investigations.
Building the Experience
Visit Dallas works with teachers, performing arts directors and tour operators to build customized itinerary ideas and connect groups with attractions, hotels and local partners that fit their goals, schedule and budget.
As an educator, that is what I want student travel to do: help young people come home with a richer understanding of the world around them, greater confidence built on experiences, shared memories and a broader sense of what is possible.
Written by Christine Davis, Tourism Sales & Services Manager, Visit Dallas.
Photo courtesy of Jenna Rushing.
