|
| |
For West Roxbury student, travel
scholarship is 'tres bon'
By Corinne Kator/ Correspondent, West Roxbury/Roslindale Transcript
Thursday, December 29, 2005
After taking three years of French classes at Boston Trinity Academy, Crystal
Rice, 17, of West Roxbury, wanted to join her classmates on their springtime
trip to France, but she knew she couldn't afford it.
Then her French teacher handed her a brochure for a travel scholarship from the
Boston Youth Fundraising Campaign. Rice applied for and received the
scholarship, and is now looking forward to capping her senior year at Boston
Trinity with a nine-day trip to France.
"I've always wanted to go to France. I'm really excited," said Rice, explaining
that she can hardly wait to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum, to visit
Louis XIV's luxurious palace at Versailles, and perhaps to find the Parisian
cafe where Humphrey Bogart romanced Ingrid Bergman in the film "Casablanca."
The BYFC, founded this year by friends Leys Bostrom and Whitney Russell,
selected Rice and four other students from Boston Trinity as the first
recipients of its travel scholarships. The scholarships are intended to provide
an international educational experience to students who otherwise would not be
able to afford it.
"It was such a profound experience for me to travel in high school that I want
to help make it a reality for as many students as possible," said Russell.
Bostrom said she and Russell work in the travel industry and enjoy foreign
travel themselves, so helping students experience the "global classroom" just
seemed natural.
Bostrom and Russell have held several fund-raisers since the establishment of
BYFC this fall, but they are still working to raise the money necessary for the
students' trip in April. Bostrom said they will be hosting several more
fund-raisers this winter, including an international food tasting on Jan. 25.
Details of the event will soon be available online, she said, at www.thebyfc.org.
She said BYFC will also be accepting donations at this Web site.
Rice said she and the other students are responsible for part of the fund
raising as well. They have been selling pizza at school during lunchtime and
wrapping Christmas presents at Barnes & Noble to earn their portion of the
money.
"I have to make $200," Rice said, "but compared to what I would have had to make
before, that's fine with me."
This combination of fund raising by the students and by the BYFC is a sort of
pilot project, Bostrom said. If it works well in Boston, she and Russell will
try to expand the program to other cities.
They are starting small this year, she said, and working with just one school.
BYFC has no particular affiliation with Boston Trinity, she said, and will
likely work with other Boston schools in the future.
Lindsay Owens, the French teacher at Boston Trinity, said the trip is an
exciting and challenging opportunity for her students to study the French
culture firsthand, which she hopes will "open their eyes to other kinds of
people and different ways of living."
Rice said she was so excited when she learned she'd received the BYFC
scholarship that she was speechless. Now that she has recovered her voice, she
is busy earning her $200 for the trip and practicing "bonjour" and "au revoir."
|
