As the school year wrapped up last May, students and staff went their separate ways for the summer. Do you ever wonder where they went? The three months of summer left a lot of time for a variety of adventures.
Many students and staff travel further than the Chamblee and Atlanta city limits. Such as MTSS Specialist, Shaheen Begum who traveled way past the city limits all the way to India.
“My family lives there and because of the COVID and stuff we were not able to go for four years because of the travel restrictions and everything,” said Begum.
After visiting family, Begum and her family went and explored the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

“We went on buggies (4 wheel motor vehicles) in the desert and it was a lot of fun. That was, I believe, one of the coolest things. And then we also went to the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world and it was beautiful. We were able to see the developed new Dubai and then the old Dubai and then the sand,” said Begum.
Some of the differences between the US and Dubai ended up being convenient for Begum.
“The weather is definitely different. Culture is different. And one very important thing is the food. So much good food, and because I practice Islam as a Muslim, I only eat halal food. There are very limited places that serve halal food here in the states. So I have to be very picky. But in Dubai when you go out, every place is halal so you can just go anywhere and eat everything without even asking,” said Begum.
Chamblee student Sarah Marcus (‘24) chose to travel to a more tropical location.
“I went to Costa Rica on a teen tour. I wanted to do something adventurous and do a lot of fun activities and service opportunities, plus meet new people,” said Marcus.
The experience was truly memorable.
“It’s just really fun to meet new people, get out of your comfort zone, and do really fun things with people you’ve never met before. It’s different than just hanging out with the people that you know at home,” said Marcus. “We saw a volcano erupt one morning when we woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked to the top of this mountain. Plus we got to see a cool waterfall.”
Some Chamblee students kept their adventures within the United States.

“I went to Utah with my family and my friend, Sadie. We did a lot of hiking in Zion National Park, and we went to this really cool place called The Great Chamber that looks like a dune inside of this outcrop, which is really cool.” said Brooke Robinson (‘24).
She even got to pet a cow in Utah.

“Petting a cow for the first time was like a major life bucket list goal of mine,” said Robinson.
Other students continued their education throughout the summer with different programs.
“I went to New York. I was doing a summer journalism program for the School of New York Times. We went there for two weeks and stayed in the Fordham University dorms. Going to class every day from eight to two, and then after that we were kind of just allowed to do whatever,” said Emmy Williams (‘24). “It was a great way to learn more independence and to be away from my parents for two weeks. It’s kind of like the college experience.”

Emmy wasn’t the only student who got the college experience over summer. Senior Ryan Lovejoy also did a program similar to Emmy’s.
“I was in this one month program called embark at UC Berkeley, which was essentially a summer program focused on architecture and urban design. We had classes every day from nine to four where we would be in the studio designing for our projects,” said Ryan Lovejoy (‘23).
But just like all summers do, it came to an end. Now everyone is back in town and ready for the school year.
“I am actually excited. And looking forward to coming back and starting the school year. It’s always hard to come back from a vacation every year, but this year was a lot easier than my previous years,” said Begum.