Mary Kay McCray, ROP Support Staff: Traveling to South Africa via Dubai with the SMMUSD 2010 SAGE students was an amazing and humbling experience. The students were delightful, full of energy, focus and enthusiasm for every adventure and new experience. The teachers, Ms. Kemp and Ms. Jones gave numerous hours in planning and executing a trip of this magnitude and their professionalism and presence was very inspiring. The students formed such a wonderful team spirit and looked out for one another in every way.


Having Ms. Baxter, administrator extraordinaire, travel with us provided such a sense of comfort. Ms. Strahn kept us all organized, making sure everyone was present, taking volumes of pictures and always rock steady in her support.

For me, personally, the trip was an opportunity to support the quality of work that SMMUSD ROP has provided to its students and lend a helping hand to two very dedicated teachers.

Africa itself was so beautiful and the people so humble and kind.

The students represented the USA admirably. We learned so much about other cultures and schools.

I felt humbled to have what we have and it certainly was a life changing experience for all of us. I had the opportunity to mediate some of the teenage drama, but ended up learning so much from the students and was surprised by their maturity and kindness.

Thank you SMMUSD for your support and for letting us have this wonderful memory.