Exploring Expeditions

With the most loved (and hated) time of the year coming up, Expeditions are on everyone’s minds! In this article, I’ll reveal the results of a poll I conducted to see how many people were happy with their new Expedition assignments, and what else they think about them. 

Cover Image: Expeditions showcase from a few years ago 

As of October 19th, most (77.9%) of students who responded to the survey were happy with the experience they got, and a few weren’t sure. The 7.1% of students who were unhappy with their Expedition assignment were mostly those who didn’t like any of the options, applied for a program with limited space, or changed their minds about what they picked on the survey. 

Interestingly, the number of students who got into their first choice experience was pretty similar to the number who reported that they were satisfied. About a quarter of the respondents didn’t get into their top choice, but the majority of people (76.1%) did. 

Several respondents to the survey had feedback about the internship experience. One student wrote, “I wish the internships were offered for people under 16," and another responded, “It’s hard to find workplaces that are willing to hire a high school student for 7 irregular weeks. Also, I found it difficult to navigate the process of cold emailing a bunch of different companies.” If there is a main takeaway you should get from reading this article, it’s that finding internships is really tough! About a quarter of the people who said they were unhappy or unsure about their Expeditions placement talked about internships as the reason why, and even people who got their first choice mentioned the internship application process in their responses.

Lots of people had input about more courses they wanted to take, too. Here are some of their ideas: 

• Psychology
• CPR Training
• Economics
• Advanced Cooking
• Photography
• LGBTQ History 
• Pottery
• Kinesiology

There were even more responses to this question that I didn’t include, but it was surprising to me to see just how diverse the suggestions were. 

While our Expeditions catalog is already so extensive, it unfortunately can never catch up to the varied interests of Tahoma students. If you want to tell me more of your thoughts on Expeditions or your experience, feel free to fill out the survey for yourself here:  https://forms.gle/GGdCK64tn3PAt3VE7 

Whether you’re doing an independent study, internship, class, or something else, I hope you have a great time!