Valley New School students present yearlong European field study, cite Auschwitz visit as turning point

Valley New School students and advisers presented a yearlong European field study to the Appleton Area School District board on Wednesday, summarizing travel planning, fundraising and classroom projects that followed the trip.

Jennifer Kosloski, adviser and cofounder at Valley New School, told the board the group included 13 students who spent a full academic year preparing, traveling this past summer and producing post-trip projects for public sharing. Kosloski said fundraisers covered bus drivers and tour-guide tips and helped defray some travel costs.

Student presenters described a multi-city itinerary: three to four days in Amsterdam, stops in Berlin (and Dresden), Prague, Krakow with a drive through Slovakia and a final stop in Budapest. Students recounted museum and cultural visits, a canal tour and regional foods; one student said the group also completed travel journals and nightly haiku-writing to reflect on experiences.

Multiple students described the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau as emotionally formative. A student presenter summarized the historical figures the group reviewed: “Out of the total 1,100,000 prisoners of Auschwitz, over a million of them died in Auschwitz Birkenau…over 90% of them were Jewish,” and said the visit prompted reflection and group processing.

Students also described hands-on learning and peer projects on return: individualized products such as models, videos and food demonstrations were presented at a public event Oct. 24. Kosloski said some students remain enrolled at Valley New School and others who graduated are now at college; the trip ran June (around June 20) through roughly July 10, she said.

The board thanked the students and advisers for the presentation. Kosloski and several student speakers noted that the experience expanded students’ historical perspective and global awareness and that the school plans to continue similar experiential learning projects.