Field Trippin’ Around Boston

Students splash during a fun field trip.

Every week, B-SAFE fills up bus after bus with our enthusiastic, energetic young people to bring them on field trips throughout Boston. This week, we have groups visiting Boston Children’s Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Revere Beach, Boston Public Market, Castle Island, the New England Aquarium, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Jackson Homestead and Museum. This is in addition to all of our Friday field trips, which are planned by our generous partners.

Why do we bring our students on so many field trips? It’s important to us at B-SAFE that we take advantage of all the learning opportunities around us! In the summer, students are not in school mode, and they benefit from hands-on, active learning that can happen at the museums and outdoor spaces around the city.

Students learn about marine life during a field trip to the New England Aquarium

This year, each one of our sites is visiting the New England Aquarium. At the Aquarium, our young people can see up close exciting water animals like sea turtles, sharks, rays, and penguins. Exploring the aquarium in small groups, they are constantly asking questions about the animals they see. What do they eat? Where do they live? Are they dangerous? Staff at the aquarium offer the expertise that our staff can’t, as well as the opportunity to encounter in person wildlife they would never see in the city. The curiosity never ends when young people are excited about what they are doing, and we make it a priority to give students a lot of those experiences during their summer months.

By Maggie Needham, Academic Coordinator

Maggie Needham is part of the Academic Team for B-SAFE this year, and she is excited to bring interesting, fun programming to our students this summer. Maggie graduated from Saint Louis University in 2015 and spent the past year as a lead counselor and academic coordinator for LEARN students at St. Stephen's. Her favorite thing about St. Stephen's is the relationships she gets to build with our wonderful young people.