WEEK WITHOUT WALLS

Description

Trip description: First semester of Senior year can be a challenging experience. Whether applying to university or completing assessments, it is a time when students are expected to be independent, responsible, and to do their best work. For IB Diploma students, it is even more difficult with the Theory of Knowledge essay,

Extended Essay, CAS reflections, Written Assignments, and Internal Assessments. The aim of the Academic Retreat is to provide IB Diploma students in Grade 12 time to complete university applications and essays and IB assessments. Faculty will be available in a select few disciplines to provide support while students work independently through an agenda that they set for themselves.

Program cost:  none

Fitness Level: any

Trip description:

Al Sorat farm is located in Giza, just off of the Mariotia Road about 4 km NW of the Pyramid of Djoser. Here is a link to a NY Times article about the farm.

Below is a tentative itinerary:

Monday

Introduction to the farm, explanation of why it was built the way that it was, as an area of free interaction among animals. We discuss animal behavior, specifically in reference to interactions with our dogs. We have a working pack of roughly a dozen dogs of various breeds and varieties who live here and supply security at night and companionship during the day. As working dogs, they are trained not to “play” with children, to be well-mannered and obedient, but students who are unaccustomed to dogs need to learn how to speak to them. All of the animals living on the farm are social animals and there will be a discussion of what this means in terms of the birds and mammals on the farm.

Goats, sheep and cattle: We raise goats and sheep for breeders to buy to improve their herds. When we have a batch of babies, we have milk from the goats and sheep which is used to make cheese. If we have does or ewes to be milked, students can try it out, but if we don’t have any milk production we will bring some buffalo milk from a local farmer to make cheese.

Students visit the gardens to select vegetables for their salad and to learn about the plants we grow, seed harvesting, and so on.

Tuesday

Vet clinic: The farm has been providing free veterinary first aid and nutritional advising to the farmers of our area for about 6 years now. On Tuesday we go out to the farmers in the areas where they live and work, and we treat anything from pigeons to camels. Our means of transportation are a couple of donkey carts and we carry our medications with us. This is also a chance to do some interesting photography.

Wednesday

Edible plants, herbs and plant uses and an introduction to horse handling. The gardens around the house are full of plants that one can eat even though they are generally held to be for decoration. As well we grow herbs in the garden each of which has both a culinary and a medicinal use.

We will take students to meet the horses in the paddocks and to learn to brush and clean them and to do some walking exercises with them. We will talk about the care and feeding of horses and about why our horses all live in paddocks rather than boxes. We do a walk around the farm leading horses to learn how to communicate with them on the ground.

Thursday

This is the day that everyone looks forward to, horse-back riding. Our horses are rescues in the sense that they will never be sold to anyone. They stay at the farm until they die, and many of them have lived to a good age (About a third of them are 25 to 30+ years old, but they are healthy, happy and still enjoy taking people riding.) They have been carefully trained for trail riding and know how to recognize and assess situations out on the trails and how to deal with them without any panic or fear. They are all completely comfortable with novice riders and understand the need to care for them.

Meals are buffet style and include meat dishes and vegan dishes to cover any food orientation. We recommend that students attending wear comfortable long pants and comfortable shoes, such as sneakers, while attending the farm. Short-sleeved t-shirts are fine but it should be noted that there are flies out in the countryside and some of them bite. Dark colours are less likely to show dirt, sand, or dust.

Operator: Al Sorat Farm, Maryanne Stroud (owner)

Program cost:  LE 1,100 (includes lunch as well as daily transport to and from the farm)

Fitness Level: any

Description

Working with Mohamed Abdelwahab and The Darkroom Cairo, students will learn how to take and develop great photos with 35mm black and white film.

. They will start their week learning the film basics, how to use a 35mm film camera, followed by a trip to El Moezz Street and nearby mosques to take photographs. They will then spend two days at a downtown Cairo photography studio developing film and using a large format camera. Students will also have an opportunity to create images with the wet collodian technique, as photographers did in the 1800s. They will spend their final day at CAC scanning their images and using photoshop to edit with their own artistic ideas.

Program cost:  LE 1800 (includes all materials, camera rental, and transportation between CAC, local sites, and the studio)

Fitness Level: any

Trip description: Doctors in Denmark have found benefits of providing premature babies with  crocheted octopus toys . These are easy enough for even beginners to complete. In this WWW experience, the group will crochet a set of toys to donate to a local organization.

Students will travel to a local yarn shop to choose yarn and other materials. They will also take breaks from crochet to engage in physical activities such as yoga and pilates, depending on the size and interests of the group.

Program cost:  LE 1000 (includes materials, transportation, exercise program)

Fitness Level: any

Trip description: Life Skills 101 addresses the things in your later secondary school and upcoming collegiate life that DO NOT fall within either the CAC or IB curriculum.

We will be based on the CAC campus, and we will be working with areas of your own personal development such as personal branding (such as resume writing and Linkedin accounts), social profiling (managing your social media in a way that does not hurt you professionally), time management (what is and is not smart use of your time), self management (household stuff), financial management (saving, investment, and bank accounts), and major purchasing (such as cars, houses, and investing).  

Program cost:  none

Fitness Level: any

The focus of this week is to develop strategic and creative thinking.  Anyone can play Bingo or Go Fish,

but the games played during this session require something more: strategic thinking.  During this week participants will play games. But beyond that they will learn to think deeply and critically about games, developing strategies and learning how to think on their feet.

Games Include:

Board Games:

• Pandemic

• Scythe

• Settlers of Catan

• Quantum

• Sheriff of Nottingham

• Go (Wei Chi)

• Blokus

Card Games:

• Gang Of Four

• Hanabi

...and More.  

In addition to this players will explore the world of tabletop gaming with opportunities to participate in a brief Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  This game incorporates strategy and deep thinking with acting and collaborative storytelling.

One key feature of this week:  NO video games. We will spend the time in a fun and relaxing environment, but we will be unplugged.  During all gaming sessions there will be no phones, ipads or computers allowed in the room.

The goal of this session is to build relationships, have fun, and learn to enjoy activities without technology.  

Program cost:  none

Fitness Level: any

Trip description:

The Aswan Service trip will be on the banks of the beautiful Nile River in one of the most amazing cities in Africa, Aswan, rich with its pharaonic culture. Students will be teaching English and learning about the fascinating Nubian culture. We will spend around 5-6 hours per day teaching and engaging in cultural exchanges through activities such as learning new dances and drawing, while also touring some of the amazing sights around Aswan.

Program location:

The program will be in Hesa Island, Aswan, Egypt.

Other activities may include:

Orientation session before the program begins.

Training for volunteers and materials for teaching.

Visiting one of Aswan's amazing islands, the Plant Islands.

Visiting a local market

Visiting Nile Museum

Visiting Nubian Museum

High Dam/Philae Island boat tour

Cost including flights and program: LE 15,000

Operator: Have a Dream.

Room and Board: Students will stay in a guest house on Hesa Island by the Nile River and will be provided with three Nubian meals a day.

Trip description:

The Swiss Leadership Camp in the Gstaad valley is specifically designed for school groups and provides students with the opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills,

goal setting, time management techniques and to collaborate more effectively in teams while working on exciting challenges and great outdoor activities in a unique mountain setting with experienced trainers, professional mountain guides and coaches.

Excursions and outdoor activities may include:

Glacier Visit

Mountain Lake Expediction

Mountain Hike

Peak Walk

Camp Fire and Music

High Altitude Ropes Course

Archery Workshop

Rock Climbing

First Aid Training

Ice Skating

Geneva Excursion

The Boat Game

United Nations Visit

More Information and video: Swissleadershipcamp.com

Please visit swissleadershipcamp.com for more information.

Room and board:

•    Typical Swiss style wooden and stone chalet.  Students share a room with one other student and all rooms have ensuite bathrooms. All meals included except during transit.

•    All diets are catered for including but not limited to religious diets, vegetarian, 100% gluten free, sugar free and other requests.

Additional information:

•    Families receive a full info package including dietary requests, packing list, health form and daily blogs.

•    To give an idea of items on the packing list: regular clothes, hiking shoes for activities, warm fleece, water and wind resistant jacket, gloves, sunglasses and hat for glacier expedition.

•    All other materials for activities are provided by the camp.

•    No extra supplies or vaccination needed.

Fitness level: A unique combination of activities is offered and can be enjoyed by all students regardless of age, fitness level or experience.

Visa: Information about which nationalities require visas can be found here. Students are provided with a support letter for the embassy if needed. Note that visa information is subject to change.

Operator: The Swiss Leadership Camp

Flight Cost: LE 10,620

Program Cost: $1,900 (visa cost not included)

WWW Berlin will focus on the elements of history and design that create the unique experience of Berlin. Design and technology are used with food, shelter, learning, entertainment, historical preservation, sustainability efforts, and much more. We will include elements that share Berlin's unique history and the current efforts to preserve and share it.

We will also visit examples of design in the areas of unusual experiences, such as the dark restaurant and EXIT Berlin; collective memory such as the Topography of Terror Museum; entertainment, such as the Blue Man Group; and architecture, such as OlympiaStadion and Central Berlin. We will consider the issue of sustainability with a tour of the Kreuzberg neighborhood and a visit to BAU International, a Berlin university with a program in Design Tech. We will also focus some time specifically on technology at a BMW assembly plant.

We will further focus on the history of 20th century Berlin by doing a walking tour of East and West Berlin, The Brandenburg Gate and downtown, and an interactive cold war experience and an artistic recreation of the Berlin Wall.

This trip is intended to be an overall consideration of the unique combination of technology, history, and design that have created modern Berlin.

Visas: Note that visa information is subject to change.

US citizens: Not required

Egyptian citizens: required,details online, but a visit to the German embassy will be required

Citizens of EU member states: no visa required (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Liechtenstein)

Other nationalities, please see thedetails online.

Flight cost: LE 10,600

Program cost:  $1675 (visa cost not included)

Room & Board: Students will stay in a hotel near Central Station in Berlin.

Most meals pre-arranged; a few will be open for students' choice of eating establishment (€200 is budgeted for this purpose and included in the cost listed).

Fitness Level: Moderate, walking tours up to 4 hours included in this trip; extensive daily walking required.  An easy two-hour bike ride is included in the trip, and therefore the ability to ride a bike is required.

Trip description:

Explore the fascinating city of Prague, Czech Republic through Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS). CAS Trips organizes its experiences around the IB Learner Profile, emphasizing student engagement and reflection. IB Diploma Candidates and students considering the IB Diploma can benefit from this trip.

You will be introduced to the incredibly diverse history and culture and explore the Old Town, New Town, Jewish Quarter and Riverside areas by night.

Creativity:

• An exploration of Prague’s vibrant street art scene, with the opportunity to create your own canvas to take home.

• Historical Walking Tour..

Action:

• Whitewater rafting and archery in the Bohemian countryside.

• Archery competition.

• Ancient Bohemian Urban Treasure Hunt.

Service:

• A tour of Prague from a completely different perspective with one of Pragulic homeless guides.

• In co-operation with Prague’s most out-reaching homeless charity Nadeje, working as a team to plan, prepare, cook and distribute a meal for 50+ homeless.

• Novy Prostor magazine sales challenge.

• Assisting farmers at a sustainable, organic bio farm in the rural suburbs of Prague.

• Designing a long-term collaborative CAS Project in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

You will also learn some top tips and secrets using the online CAS Connect! and Reflections Centre, as well as your own CAS Trips Prague Participants’ Guide to complete some exciting digital reflections challenges.

Visa: The Czech Republic is a Schengen visa country. Note that visa information is subject to change.

US citizens: Not required

Egyptian citizens: required, details online, but a visit to the Czech embassy will be required

Citizens of EU member states: no visa required (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Liechtenstein)

Other nationalities, please see the details online.

Flight cost: LE 12,800 estimated

Program cost: $1,300 (visa cost not included)

Room and board: Students will stay at a hotel. All meals are included in the price of the trip except during transit.

Operator: CAS Trips

Fitness Level: extensive walking required

Trip description:

Students will challenge themselves on this exciting WWW trip. Through a variety of outdoor activities, such as rafting, rock climbing, kayaking, and trekking, they will learn to face personal challenges and work as a team. As they go, students will learn backcountry skills and principles,

such as river navigation, paddling techniques, trail etiquette, knot tying, map reading, top roping, belaying, and Leave No Trace. They will also learn about river ecosystems, farming techniques, and Croatian history.

Visa: Families with students on this trip will be responsible for obtaining a tourist visa. For further information, check the Croatian Embassy in Egypt website. Note that visa information is subject to change.

Mandatory Equipment

Please see the detailed packing list (click here for details). All students will be required to bring their equipment to school for a mandatory equipment check.

Students will be provided with waterproof pants and jacket as well as wet and/or dry suits for the water activities.

Operator: Terra Magica Adventures

Flight cost: LE 11,900 estimated

Program cost:  $2100 (visa cost not included)

Room and Board: Camping and mountain huts. All meals starting with lunch on October 5th are included. Students will need to pay for their own breakfast on October 5th and lunch and dinner on October 11th.

Fitness Level: High - the group will be hiking, rock climbing and kayaking.

Trip Description: While it is no secret Egypt is rich in culture and history, it is also home to some of the best diving locations in the world. This Week Without Walls CAC has partnered with Deco Divers to offer a comprehensive underwater student experience in Marsa Alam. Throughout the week students will learn, explore, and have fun above and below water by completing scuba certification courses, enjoying excursions to the desert and dolphin house, and completing PADI’s Project AWARE conservation awareness program.

Scuba Diving: A wide variety of scuba diving options are available for students, ranging from an initial open water course for entry level divers, to advanced, rescue, and speciality courses for already certified divers. Students will complete at least 3 dives per day.  

• Open Water Certification: The Open Water Diver course is the entry level course for individuals 10 years and older. Through this course you will develop a strong understanding of the basic principles of scuba diving, while practicing basic scuba skills in confined and open water. Students will be required to complete the PADI online e-learning module, five confined water skill sessions, and four open water dives.

• Advanced Water Certification: The advanced open water diver course can be taken after completing the Open Water Diver certification. It is designed to advance your diving knowledge and skills through a wide variety of Adventure Dives. Divers will be required to complete the mandatory deep and underwater navigation dives, and select three additional dives. Other options are: boat, drift, night, search and recovery, and underwater naturalist. Speciality options will depend on instructor qualifications and sea conditions.

• Rescue Diver Certification: Through the Rescue Diver course, divers will learn to prevent and manage problems in the water, become more confident in their skills as a diver, and gain confidence in helping others. The topics included in this course are: self rescue, recognizing and managing stress in other divers, emergency management and equipment, rescuing a panicked diver, and rescuing an unresponsive diver. Combined with the EFR course, the diver learns the skills needed to administer first aid to victims once out of the water, completing the full cycle of being a rescue diver.

• Certified Diver: All ready certified and looking to explore new dive locations in Egypt? Already certified divers are welcomed to join the trip and enjoy a fun week in Marsa Alam. Divers can expect at least 3 dives per day, depending on certification level.

Accommodations: Students will stay at Marsa Nakari Village, an eco-friendly village in Marsa Alam. It’s location provides a rare opportunity for students to explore some of Egypt’s most pristine marine ecosystems. Students will be housed in a double room and provided full board accommodations.

Student Activities: Throughout the week students will explore Egypt’s deep south above and below water, and participate in a variety of activities to raise conservation awareness. Students will have an afternoon excursion to explore Wadi Gemal and a full day boat excursion to the local dolphin house to scuba dive and snorkel with dolphins. Lastly, a variety of conservation projects will be incorporated into the diving activities to promote the protection of coral reefs and marine life through PADI’s Project AWARE program.

Itinerary: All e-learning modules must be completed before October 4th.

• Pool Session @ CAC

• No Activities (SAT Examination)

• Travel to Marsa Alam

• Diving at Marsa Nakari

• Boat Excursion to Dolphin House

• Travel to Cairo

Price: Includes accommodations, transportation, course materials, equipment rental, and dive insurance. Does not include tips.

• Open Water: LE 29,000

• Advanced Diver: LE 28,100

• Rescue Diver: LE 31,400

• Certified Diver: LE 26,400

Fitness Level: Must be a good swimmer.

Trip description:

WWW India is a service trip organized by the provider ME to WE. Students will be involved in a variety of different projects intended to remove barriers to education for the people of a WE Villages community. These projects could  range from school building, to tree planting, to restoration. Every day of the trip is made up of a combination of building activities, unique cultural experiences, and leadership skill building modules. Students will also visit the City Palace and Rankakpur Temple.

Students will travel to Udaipur, India. Then they will be transferred to accommodations near the WE Villages community in Rajasthan Province where they will volunteer.

Other activities may include:

Henna Workshop

Hindi Lessons

Visits to Kumbhalgarh fortress

Morning Yoga Lessons

Community Visits

Samosa Making

Visit to the Old City Market and a local tailor

Bollywood dancing Lessons

Morning in the Village

Nature Walks

Visa: Families with students on this trip will be responsible for obtaining a tourist visa. For further information, check the Indian Embassy in Cairo. The visa process can be started online here. Note that visa information is subject to change.

Operator:

ME to WE

Flight cost: LE19,000 estimated

Program cost:  $1950 (visa cost not included)

Room and Board: Most of this trip will be spent in a comfortable, tented camp compound maintained by Me to We, located about two hours outside of Udaipur in Rajasthan; all meals provided except during airport transit.

Fitness Level: Medium - the group will be walking/hiking; light lifting may be involved

Trip Description:

Learn a new skill, explore a new culture, and discover the natural beauty of Morocco’s Atlantic coast! This trip will travel to Agadir, where students will stay at Surf Berbere. There they will take three and a half days of surfing lessons from expert instructors.

They will also learn yoga in four sunset lessons, take a day trip to beautiful Paradise Valley, and participate in a half day beach cleanup.

Flight cost: LE 7,900

Program cost: $900 (visa cost not included)

Room and board: Students will stay at a surf camp (indoors); meals are included except for a group night out in Taghazout town and meals during transit.

Fitness Level: Must be fit and a good swimmer.

Trip description:

WWW Tanzania is a service trip organized by the provider ME to WE. Students will be involved in a variety of different projects intended to remove barriers to education for the people of a WE Villages community. Activities could be laying bricks, digging wells to provide clean waters, or planting crops. Every day of the trip is made up of a combination of building activities, unique cultural experiences, and leadership skill building modules.

Students will also enjoy a day on Safari to see wildlife and will partake in some of the following activities:

Village Water Walk with a Maasai mama

Medicine Walk and Maasai Warrior Training

Community Visits

Chai Making Lesson

Swahili Lessons

Rural Market Visit

Celebration Dinner

Visa

Families with students on this trip will be responsible for obtaining a tourist visa. Information can be found online here. In the past CAC has been able to send all visa applications together through Travel Choice. We will provide more information to students and parents at a later date.

Please note this trip does require a yellow fever vaccination.

Operator: ME to WE

Flight cost: LE 13,400

Program cost: $2,250 (visa cost not included)

Room and Board: Students will stay in a comfortable, tented camp compound maintained by Me to We; all meals provided except during airport transit.

Fitness Level: Medium - the group will be walking/hiking; light lifting may be involved.

College Tour: This experience is focused on giving a maximum of 20 CAC students exposure to U.S. colleges/universities in the New York Metro-Philadelphia metro areas of the United States. Students opting for this trip should be highly motivated and on track to gain admission to selective university programs in the U.S. The list of colleges to be visited will be decided upon by the college placement team and the students opting for this experience. Universities to be visited may include:  

NYU

Columbia

Fordham

The New School

Pace

Hofstra

U Penn

Lehigh

Lafayette

Haverford

Swarthmore

Temple

Drexel

Hofstra

Visa:

Families with students registering for this experience may be required to obtain a visitor visa for visiting the United States, depending upon nationality. Consult the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs website for specific information. Note that visa information is subject to change. Families are responsible for getting the appropriate visa.

Flight cost: LE 13,720

Program cost: $2,200 (visa not included)

Room and Board: Double and triple hotel rooms with wifi and breakfast included; price also includes lunch and dinner each day.

Fitness Level: medium; lots of walking