The eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. is a rite of passage for many students, creating memories that endure over decades. I was lucky enough to hop on a bus with my classmates roughly forty years ago for just this experience. And, even today, when I hear a song from that time (one that was played though my Walkman headphones as I tuned the radio dial to the next city’s pop-rock station), I’m transported back to 1983. From Dorothy’s ruby slippers at the Smithsonian to burgers at the now-defunct Roy Rogers restaurant to the echoing halls of the capitol building… It all feels like yesterday.
Amy Harlan knows all too well how much an excursion like this means to students. She’s one of Teach & Travel’s Traveling Teacher of the Year nominees for 2025, and she’s been the lead coordinator of the eighth-grade D.C. trip for East Jessamine Middle School in Nicholasville, Kentucky for several years.
Like many of the teachers we’ve talked with, Amy didn’t start out in the field of education. After completing her degree in Public Relations and Advertising, she joined the State Attorney’s Office in Florida, where coworkers encouraged her to pursue a career working with children. She went on to receive a Master of Arts in Teaching with a focus in Middle Grades Language Arts, and has taught in Florida, West Virginia, and now Kentucky, ever since.
She says when she decided to become a teacher, everything clicked. “It just felt natural. It let me be who I was without trying to forge a path. It felt good, it felt right, and it was everything I expected the dream to be.
When Amy started at East Jessamine Middle School, she taught eighth grade, and was given the reins of planning the D.C. trip after the previous planner left and COVID restrictions were lifted. Even since switching to teaching sixth grade a couple of years ago, she’s still at the helm.
The school had been facilitating the D.C. trip for decades, so it wasn’t new to them. But, starting over after 2020, they needed to put their heads together to decide what it would look like going forward. They researched travel companies and took into consideration what their priorities were. Finding the right travel company turned out to be key, and the relationship Amy has formed with the travel company coordinator, Iris Keogh with Grand Classroom, over time has made it all the more valuable.
While previous trips were two nights and three days, they’re now four nights and five days, providing a more comprehensive offering. “It’s like a Griswold trip,” Amy says. “We stop at everything, getting up early and arriving back to the hotel late. We walk upwards of 10 miles a day. It’s not an easy trip, by any means. But students feel really good about what they’ve experienced—even walking away from the trip a whole different person, which is pretty cool.”
As Amy says, it isn’t easy. But, she says the more she plans ahead of time, and expects the unexpected, the smoother everything goes—even through the mishaps, struggles, and frustrations. That planning isn’t just the itinerary, hotel, transportation, lodging, and meals; it’s about preparing the kids ahead of time. “We talk about how to deal with money, how to order food, how to be nice to your waitresses, even how to interact with docents at museums,” she says. “Just how to do life as an adult.”
When students arrive, they aren’t thrown to the wolves. They know how to advocate for themselves, and few challenges come as a surprise. In turn, they get to see firsthand how their actions can have consequences, and how their experience can be enhanced just by their behavior.
Being respectful and personable had earned Amy’s school groups once-in-a-lifetime opportunities on more than one occasion, including being able to participate in ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery or have more in-depth conversations with the Sentinels who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
These have been some of the more memorable aspects of past trips, and they only happened because she or another member of the group had the gumption to ask. “Those were really pivotal moments for me,” Amy says. “They demonstrated to my students that this is why you’re kind; this is why being conscientious, engaged, and determined matters.”
For Amy, one of the more gratifying parts of taking these trips is seeing the students not just become individuals, but well-traveled individuals. At around age fourteen, they’re only a few years from being an adult—and what better way to set them up for success and independence than visiting new places and trying new things. “These trips are a stepping stone to getting out of their comfort zones, and getting out of our small, rural area,” she says. “And, just seeing something different and what life has to offer. For a lot of kids, they don’t know what’s out there, and to be the person to bring that to them is rewarding in and of itself.”
And, that’s the last takeaway from our conversation: It requires a certain type of personality to put these trips together, as well as a lot of after-hours, unpaid time and teamwork with other school staff. While that’s not said as a deterrent, it is worth noting that it’s not for everyone. “These kids could go on a trip with a lot of different people, and their experience could be very different, depending on who coordinates,” Amy says. “I think that’s a big part of it. Knowing that the parents trust that you are going to provide safety and guidance is a responsibility and honor I don’t take lightly.”
Written by Allison Kay Bannister.
Photo courtesy of Amy Harlan.
