Big Spring, which is a group of seventh- through 10th-graders in the local Spring Initiative program, are spending Wednesday and Thursday in Nashville as part of their spring break in an effort to expand their horizons.
All 14 children will be participating in the High Ropes obstacle course, which is a team-building exercise.
“You go in trees and then you can zip line, climb up trees and do a catwalk,” said Lafayette Gibson, an eighth-grader at Coahoma County Junior High School.
They will be visiting Vanderbilt University, the Adventure of Science Center, seeing a planetarium show, seeing Parthenon to learn Greek mythology and eating at Prince Hot Chicken.
Alena Welch, Anja Thiessen and Rachel Bouer from Spring Initiative will be going with the children on the trip.
“They’ve taken a trip a couple of years ago to Nashville, but this is our first trip doing the ropes course, a university visit and doing an overnight in Nashville,” Welch said.
They have visited Duke University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Illinois, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, the University of Ohio and Millsaps College in the past.
All of the children were looking forward to the trip.
“I’m excited to go on the trip because I’ll be around most of the friends I’m not around most of the day,” said W.A. Higgins Middle School seventh-grader Keshia Scott.
Gibson concurred.
“I’m excited because I get to know more of my friends and their feelings about the different trips that we have,” she said.
Jamaren Palmer, a seventh-grader at W.A. Higgins Middle School, said he wants to visit LSU one day where he hopes to go college. He was excited about the upcoming trip.
“I hope everybody has fun and gets a lesson out of the trip,” he said.
Joseph Ewings, an eighth-grader at CCJHS, hopes to gain knowledge.
“I hope to learn to learn at the Parthenon,” he said.
