Globetrotting teacher takes students on cultural, educational adventures
courtesy photo
Mark Rochin
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
News from Scott Boen Polson School District #23
POLSON — Polson Middle School teacher Mark Rochin is passionate about offering students extracurricular opportunities. He believes the opportunities enrich and complement the district’s curriculum and contribute positively to student development. During his 31 year teaching career, he coached for 28 years, headed an athletic club, and worked as a driver’s education instructor. Also, he is hopelessly afflicted with wanderlust. In 2017, he combined these two passions, traveled to Barcelona, Spain, and received training to organize and chaperone student educational trips abroad. The following year, he led a ten-day trip to Europe. The fifteen-member group traveled to London, Paris, Florence, Rome, the Vatican, and Capris Island.
“It was an incredible trip … The students and I toured the Louvre, Notre Dame, Pompeii, the Sistine Chapel, and the Palace of Versailles,” said Mr. Rochin. “It was great to see the students experience new things and cultures,” said Rochin.
In 2019, he led a seven-day student educational trip to Costa Rica. During that trip, he and the students walked and ziplined through a rainforest, snorkeled in a coral reef, toured a coffee bean plantation, and toured a local school. When abroad, the students had to traverse obstacles unique to being in a foreign country. “This gives them confidence and makes them so much more rounded,” said Rochin.
Mr. Rochin has two future trips planned. He is organizing and chaperoning an eight-day trip to Belize this summer. The trip’s itinerary includes boating down the New River Lagoon, visiting a sugar mill, touring the Lamanai and Xunantunich Ruins, cave tubing, visiting the Chaa Creek Natural History Museum, going on a jungle night hike, snorkeling in coral gardens, ziplining, learning some jungle survival skills, and participating in a cultural exchange with locals.
In addition, he has a trip planned to Peru for the summer of 2024. This trip features a visit to the Larco Herrera Museum, San Francisco Monastery, Maras salt ponds, and the Fortress of Sacsayhuaman, tours of the Korikancha Temple, Ollantaytambo, a local market, and Machu Picchu, multiple train rides, boating and hiking through the Amazon, and various other cultural and educational activities.
“We would like our students to be global leaders, and traveling abroad helps them experience new perspectives and navigate different cultures,” said Scott Boen, Director of Human Resources and Communication. “By offering these travel abroad experiences to our students, Mr. Rochin is providing them with invaluable life lessons and hopefully giving them tools that will better enable them to adapt to globalization,” said Boen.
There are still spots available to join Mr. Rochin’s summer 2023 Belize trip and the summer 2024 trip to Peru. They are open to Polson students and their family members.
