Last year, it was a trip to the border. This year, it was a trek to Guatemala. Both well-intentioned, genuinely interesting Discovery Week trips for the Class of 2025. Both were quietly canceled by administration due to a lack of interest, and thus a lack of funding.

The two ill-fated trips boasted many similarities. They had focuses on the Latin American world. They were notably closer in distance to Westridge than any other trip. They were many students’ last choice. And they were priced equally with the other more popular trip options.

As a student who has participated in Westridge’s incredibly intentional Spanish curriculum, a program that goes beyond just learning a language, I wasn’t turned off by the content of trips. Truly, both offered valuable lessons and learning opportunities, whether it be about the dire state of immigration at our southern border or the culture and life of Guatemalan women. 

What is frustrating about these trips though, and the ultimate deterrent for many students to sign up and agree to pay, is the cost. For two years in a row, these trips were closer in distance than any other offered trip. The Border trip did not even require a flight. There is simply no justification for the cost in comparison to the experience. 

Under Discovery Week’s current financial framework, the truth is that the Westridge Upper School administration has set these trips up for failure. How can a $4,150 trip to Guatemala, a country on the same continent as the United States, compete with a $4,150 trip to Japan or Namibia? It can’t. And it doesn’t, which is why the trip, like last year’s Border trip, was cancelled.

The last time I wrote about Discovery Week was in 2023, and I felt like steam was coming out of my ears. I was that mad at the inequity of choice and cost. 

This year, I couldn’t help but feel similarly. 

Now, I will give credit where credit is due. With an entirely new Upper School administration, I had little hopes for what Discovery Week would look like. But, to her credit, Ms. Kerri Epps, Assistant Director of Upper School, and her team really did a decent job with the Discovery Week’s rollout. Communication was punctual and clear, and the ranking system did feel like an improvement from the hunger games of fighting for your top-choice trip on SignUpGenius.

While I could point out the nebulous pricing for senior trips or the seemingly random way underclassmen were assigned trips (which is another story in itself; see editors Tekle and Rebecca’s article), I want to focus on a systemic issue no one really knows how to address. 

And that is the cost. With all grade-level trips priced the same, students should expect the same value for their dollar. I mean, in this economy? It’s only fair.

I’m not even sure I know the right solution. I believe in equity. I believe every student at Westridge should be able to go on the Discovery Week trip they want to go on—and I believe that price should not be a barrier. 

Since Discovery Week’s launch in 2023, international trips prices for seniors have increased by 38.3%. Not to mention the flat 50% increase for domestic trips. The nation’s inflation, on the other hand, has only increased by around 6%. Regardless of any justification, these dire, year-over-year price increases cannot be ignored. 

Our current system pits trips against each other because of their equal price, so the trip’s perceived value is the first thing that comes to many students’ minds. How can I win Discovery Week? Well, you win by picking the trip that is most valuable to you, and distance is the defining factor in many people’s choices. 

How hard is it to get to this country without Westridge’s support and supervision? How much do plane tickets cost? In short, how expensive and unique is this trip?

For out-of-North-America trips to countries like Namibia, Japan, and Chile, the answers to these hypotheticals in my peers’ minds and my own are a lot more positive and optimistic. Unfortunately, administration fails to recognize what is painfully obvious to Westridge students and families.

Guatemala’s proximity disqualifies its merits as a unique trip and educational experience. I can get there more quickly than I can to my grandparents who live in Washington D.C. A two-stop flight during the approximate dates of Discovery Week went for less than $400 the last time I looked. Namibia on the other hand? If any parent wanted to follow their child to the African country it would be almost $2,000 for a roundtrip ticket.

You also can’t expect parents, some of whom are already paying almost $50,000 a year in tuition and fees, to be jumping for joy to pay for their student’s third choice trip. 

Discovery Week is an invaluable experience, one that not many other students have the privilege to attend. I truly am jumping at the opportunity to visit Chile in two weeks, as much as I still do have qualms about the pricing. 

This is a program I want to love. “Interim”—what was previously the form of Discovery Week—was a selling point of Westridge to me when I applied here for sixth grade.

Next year, our school needs to take a step back, look around, and see what its community wants. Let’s not replicate our same mistakes. Let’s not have to cancel trips “due to financial restrictions related to the smaller nature of this year’s trip,” as Director of Upper School Dr. Melanie Arias wrote to those signed up to visit Guatemala. 

In an expensive world, bang for your buck is all that most are looking for. That has to be recognized. That has to be represented in trip offerings.