In Terke, India, the village my grandpa grew up in, life hit the slow-motion button. Cattle leisurely roam the fields, and cow patties decorate the unpaved dirt roads. Hearing my nana’s stories about his upbringing here, I never truly believed I’d get the chance to...
Written by Teryn Hytten, 17, a junior in Hinesburg, Vermont, for the World Is A Classroom essay contest. How far do you want to be from the program house? Five minutes? Ten? We were gearing up to start our nine-day homestays in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala, and I was...
When the Nazis stormed into Lithuania on June 22, 1941, the fate of Lithuanian Jewry seemed sealed. The Jews of Lithuania were immediately rounded up and forced into ghettos they were told would protect them from the war. The Nazi regime, with the help of Lithuanian...
My legs were burning. My arms were aching. My skin was hot and sweaty. I wanted to cry, and yet I had never felt more alive. It was June 2014, and I stood on the rocks on the top of Flat Top Mountain in the Rocky Mountains National Park, in awe of the scene before me....
Nora Ngo Mitchell, a freshman from Booker High School in Sarasota, Florida, wrote the fourth-place essay for the 2020 Ripley Hunter “World Is a Classroom” essay contest. Mornings in Ho Chi Minh City are vibrant and reflective of the rich and diverse culture that...
