As soon as Tatiana Jimenez, Div. 663 heard about a trip to London, she immediately felt as if she was in the wrong class, “I didn’t know that art classes were even allowed to leave the country, so I was surprised.”

A trip out of the United States is not uncommon to Lane students. So, this year the A.P. design and A.P. digital imaging students have been offered the chance to take a trip 4,903 miles outside of the country.

A.P. digital imaging and A.P. design are not classes that the Lane community is most used to having the opportunity to leave the United States,but there is a reason behind their decision to visit Europe.

Ms. Diamond, who is credited with the trip idea, teaches both classes and believes that going to London and Dublin would be an amazing experience for her students, “The ultimate goal of this trip is to create a hands-on learning experience for the students.  There are several universities that we will be visiting. The photographic opportunities that the students are going to be exposed to are incredible. They will be experiencing firsthand what they’ve spent the year learning”

Katie Rodriguez, Div. 673, is currently enrolled in digital imaging and supports her classmates on going to Europe, “There are tons of things and places to take pictures of and in reality it would be just such a cool place to visit.”

Digital imaging and A.P. design students are designated to be in Europe from May 23rd until May 31st, which is right after A.P. exams and before senior graduation.

Senior Nouhara Malham, Div. 666, is enrolled in digital imaging as well, and is one of the 14 students that plan to attend the London trip, “Being stuck in one country can stunt your growth as an artist but once you get out there, it changes your whole perspective on things. Not to mention that it’s a great last bonding experience, since most of us are seniors”

The price to attend is in the range of $4,200 to $4,600 for each student, so the classes are fundraising to ensure the trip will happen,

“We sell the buttons- now we’re going to contact the LSC and sell artwork to fundraise” Ms. Diamond said, “we’re going to sell designed sticker decals, and cards. We are also going to try to get some companies to sponsor students. During the holidays, we are going to send a promo video that we have been working on”.

Some of the digital imaging and design students, like Malham, are fundraising during their lunch periods, “Students can create buttons to sell for $3 each, and [Ms. Diamond] also created her own buttons that her students can sell during lunch or school events, such as open house” Malham said, “it’s hard to get people to buy buttons, if you’re selling food that’s easy to do because everyone likes food, but you have to be able to really sell the buttons to convince people that they’re worth buying”.

The deadline for the student’s $300 deposit is February 2nd, and Ms. Diamond hopes to have the fundraising for that out of the way by the holidays, “Hopefully we could get the companies to sponsor the student’s three hundred dollar deposit”.

Ms. Diamond also utilizes an organization called World Strides to plan the itinerary for her students, “They are taking care of all the travel arrangements and activities for the trip”.

Trip planning and fundraising is well underway, and Ms. Diamond’s students have worked very hard to achieve their goal of raising at least half of each student’s cost to take the trip.    

Rodriguez has seen all the work that has gone into this trip,  “I can see how bad [digital imaging and design students] want this trip to happen, and they’re working really hard to fundraise. It’s definitely going to be a trip of a lifetime, and these kids really deserve to be there”.