Being a teacher can be stressful, but being involved in multiple programs at Huntley High School can be even harder. Especially for Social Studies and Global Academy teacher Anne Sharkey. She is the leader for both of these courses she is also one of the Travel Program Leaders. The program was founded in 2009 by Social Studies teacher and Link Crew Coordinator Bradley Aney.
“I founded the travel club here at Huntley High School in 2009 when I was first hired. My official role is a group leader,” Aney said.
Sharkey and Aney are Co-leaders of this program and have gotten to travel with each other throughout the years. Sharkey has been in the leadership position for this program since 2018.
“Our first trip was in 2011. I’ve been involved since the beginning like a Co-Leader or like a chaperone and then I started doing my own tours in 2018,” Sharkey said.
Because she loves to travel so much, Sharkey thought she would share her love of traveling with students at Huntley High School. Since joining the program in 2011 Shareky has been able to create lots of memories with students.
“Like, we really get to know the kids and have an amazing experience together,” Sharkey said.
The purpose of the Travel Program is to get students to experience the world by traveling with others.
“So it’s with a group of teachers and adults from here at the high school in the way that we can kind of get kids different experiences in all sorts of different tours. So we’ll do educational tours and our global leadership summits, we’re trying to put in place service learning tours, just lots of different experiences,” Sharkey said.
Aney and Sharkey have both been on many trips with this program. They have both gotten to see different countries and have had so many great experiences.
Since Aney has gone to so many different places, it is hard to pick a favorite.
“I would say the two favorite trips that I’ve been on were Rome, Florence, and Venice, just because each one of those cities had a different type of feel and experience. And then the other one my other favorite was Paris and Normandy. And the reason why is that you got to see the big tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower but then you got to be humbled by walking down the beach to Normandy where American lives were taken in order to preserve our freedom,” Aney said.
Sharkey has been traveling with this program for over 10 years and has had many cool experiences as well.
“Looking back, I really liked the leadership summit we did in 2019. It was a small group of kids, but it was a longer tour,” Sharkey said.
Sharkey always encourages students to join the travel program and go on trips, especially those who have not been outside of the country.
“I am super excited because this will be my first trip ever going out of the country and I’m glad I get to do it with people from school to make great memories,” senior Lauren Wenzel said.
The Travel Program allows students to experience new adventures out of their comfort zone.
“I just always think whenever students are like, ‘Oh, I could never do that’ and ‘My parents would never let me do that.’ It never hurts to ask. It’s always [going to be] a cool experience. And what even if it’s something that there’s a reason we plan it a year and a half out is to try to get as many kids to experience as possible. So never hurts to ask and try and see,” Sharkey said.
