|
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
– Mark Twain
We have said before that the sun never sets on DeMatha. That no matter where you may go on this planet, if you are wearing DeMatha gear someone will say, "Oh, that's that school in Maryland."
Part of this is because there is just one high school with the name DeMatha. The other part is because we have had Stags journey to or reside in various parts of the world.
Take this summer. In June, DeMatha had school-sponsored trips to Africa, China and historic Civil Rights locations in the southern United States. In addition, Fathers Albert and Josh ventured to Rome where, as we now know, they had the chance to meet Pope Leo (and provide him with a DeMatha hat).
"A DeMatha education has increasingly become global because the world has become more interconnected," said Principal Dr. Daniel McMahon '76, who was part of the group that led the Civil Rights trip. In the past, Dan has participated in a student trip to Spain and has been on student community service trips to places as far away as Tijuana, Mexico. He has also represented DeMatha in Ireland, Japan and China.
"We need to meet people around the world to broaden our horizons," Dan said. "In addition, travel demands a lot of you. It tends to stretch you in many ways. But the amount of growth you get from that is tremendous."
DeMatha's social media posts this summer included images from faculty, alumni and students on personal trips to places as far away as New Zealand and a baseball tournament in North Carolina. One post showed several 2005 class members gathered in front of San Francisco's famous Golden Gate Bridge.
In addition, the rowing team traveled to Canada in August, and last spring DeMatha sponsored a student trip to France after welcoming French students here last September. A group of alums are also about to head to France in September.
"DeMatha tries to give opportunities that extend beyond the campus," McMahon said. "In fact, we have had some students take different trips in each of their four years at the school. One could argue that an education is not complete until you get outside the borders of the school."
The connections wall that you see on the second floor of the main school building graphically shows that many of our students have traveled outside of the United States. And yes, we hear stories all the time about Stags wearing DM gear and being asked by total strangers about the school. The Stags are always happy (and yes, proud) to be ambassadors and spread the good news from Madison Street.
One DeMatha!
---------------------------------
In the most recent booklet, "Before You Go," in which faculty/staff members offered words of advice to the class of 2025, the most common theme was to travel. Such words came from Caroline Tatnall, Michael Curran, Mike G. Jones, Dr. Sam Crusemire, Paul Davies, Jennifer Weaver, Maria Lama, Father Albert and Patricia Barreto.
See the world – you'll take DeMatha with you wherever you go!
| 
