This summer, Staples students won’t be the only ones hitting the City, earning pocket cash working odd jobs, baking in the sun, and travelling the world. Word on the street is that come June 17th, our intrepid teachers have a few adventures of their own in store, from ringing wedding bells to climbing the Great Wall.

While you have been finishing up that final sophomore research paper at the library, or studying for your Pre-Calc final, Inklings has assembled a sampling of some of your teachers’ well-earned and exciting summer plans.

Two Staples teachers will be leading adventurous trips to Asia this July.

Dana Gilland will be accompanying three Staples students: Claire Dinshaw, Emily Schussheim, and Phoebe Spear, as they attend the Hwa Chong Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Summit in Singapore. Gilland will be chaperoning the trio as they meet with 80 other recognized young leaders from around the world, while taking in the sites and local culture.

Chris Fray and husband, Chip, will be leading their third whirlwind trip to China, bringing 22 students (a record number!), to nine different cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an. There, the students will immerse themselves in Chinese culture and food, room with Yangzhou families, and practice their Mandarin, a language for which they are feverishly studying in anticipation of their final.

Physical education teacher, Michael Caetano, may not be walking on the Great Wall this summer, but he will be strolling down the aisle to marry his fiancée here in Connecticut.

Sara Pinchback, a social studies teacher, clearly cannot wait to be enjoying the sun and surf. She says wistfully, “I am going to go to the beach. Fairfield, Sag Harbor, Mystic, anywhere I can go, all summer long.”

Once he finishes running a 6th thru 12th grade Election Workshop for the Staples Social Studies Department and waves goodbye for a few weeks to his tutoring students for the SAT/ACT, social studies teacher Drew Coyne will be off on a European excursion. “I am also doing a trip to Brussels, Belgium, seeing one of my friends there, and then my boyfriend and I are heading to Slovenia.” From there, Coyne will be road-tripping to Lake Bled, the Collio region of Italy, the Dolomites region, exploring the lakes region of Italy before returning to The Gold Coast of Connecticut.

Barbara Robbins, an English teacher,  will begin the summer getting some work out of the way, but then the fun starts. She says, “I have two little kids: Scarlet and Phoebe, and I will be spending a lot of time with them at the beach.” She also looks forward to sailing. “My husband and I and the girls keep a little sailboat over at Compo,” she explains, “so we will try to be getting out on the water.”  She will finish off the last weeks of summer visiting some family in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

To all our fabulous Staples teachers who help us hone our writing skills, master incredibly challenging equations, and navigate the college process, Bon Voyage, Happy Summer, See Ya at the Shore, Arrivederci, 再见(zaijian), 有一个很好的夏天 (youyigehenhaodexiatian)! You deserve a great break.