Lawrence H. Hyde '42 traveled to every member country of the United Nations. He believed that experiencing other cultures wasn't a luxury or an extracurricular, but was fundamental to becoming a complete person and a responsible citizen of the world. The Lawrence H. Hyde '42 Center for Global Education at BC High exists as the institutional expression of that belief. The Hyde Center has brought students to thirteen countries, hosted exchange students from two partner Jesuit schools, and engaged nearly 30% of BC High's student body in travel, academic, language, and guest lecturer programming. This is what high school service trips abroad look like when they're built around a mission rather than an itinerary.
The distinction between an immersive service trip and a tourist itinerary isn't just philosophical. It shows up in what students actually do when they arrive.
In Vietnam, BC High students worked with Blue Dragon, a local foundation addressing human trafficking and supporting street children in Hanoi. Their physical service project, facilitated by Way to Travel, brought them to Hue to work alongside a local family, building a chicken coop, sharing meals, and learning about each other's lives over two weeks. In the Dominican Republic, students traveled to rural campos with ILAC, a Jesuit organization, and spent their days digging and laying piping for an aqueduct that would bring clean drinking water to an agricultural community. In Belize City, students stayed and worked with Hand in Hand Ministries on a home-building project for a local family, working alongside the people who would live in that house for years to come.
These aren't immersive study abroad trips abroad in the tourism sense. Students aren't observing. They're building, digging, working, and forming relationships with the communities they serve.
The Hyde Center's travel reached thirteen countries. These programs illustrate the range and depth of what service trips abroad for high school students look like at BC High.
Vietnam: Eight students traveled for two weeks in February, working with Blue Dragon on issues of human trafficking and completing a family service project in Hue with Way to Travel.
Dominican Republic: Fourteen students traveled over Thanksgiving break to work with ILAC in rural campos, digging and laying piping for a community aqueduct.
Cape Verde: In an inaugural trip developed in partnership with the Black and Latino Student Union and the Cabo Verdean Student Association, ten students traveled to Praia to work with English Language Learners Cape Verde (ELL CV), a nationally recognized organization providing after-school English enrichment. Students also visited a local farm, participated in Kriolu lessons, and took a day-long tour of the island.
Guatemala: Twenty students traveled to Parramos over April break to live and work at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH), a home dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged children. Students worked with NPH's children, played soccer, and helped build an ecological park in memory of a child who had recently passed away.
The outcomes of high school summer travel abroad programs and service immersion experiences are harder to quantify than an itinerary. But they show up in how students talk about what changed.
Students return with a more concrete understanding of global inequality and a more personal relationship to it. They come back having formed real friendships across language barriers, having worked with their hands on projects that matter, and having seen their own assumptions tested in ways that a classroom rarely replicates. The Hyde Center's impact report notes that 83 of the 176 students who traveled recently received financial aid, reflecting the Center's commitment to making this formation available to a broad cross-section of the student body.
For students who want formal recognition of this growth, the Hyde Center Global Certificate program provides a structured pathway. To earn a Global Certificate upon graduation, students complete globally designated courses across two or more departments, actively participate in Hyde Center programming, demonstrate sustained language engagement, complete an intercultural experience, and present a final reflection to an audience. The Class of 2025 included the first cohort of Global Certificate graduates: five seniors completed the program, with 20 rising seniors and 24 rising juniors currently enrolled.
Immersive study abroad high school programs at BC High aren't limited to summer or break travel. Global education is woven into the academic and community life of the school throughout the year.
Through the Hyde Center Student Exchange Programs, BC High hosted students from two partner Jesuit schools in Boston in 2024-25: Lycée Saint-Marc sent 15 co-ed students for two weeks, and Colegio del Salvador sent 11 students for three weeks. Visiting students attended classes at BC High, visited the Freedom Trail and Museum of Fine Arts, and were hosted by Massachusetts Representative Marjorie Decker P'27, among other experiences. BC High students who had previously hosted exchange students then traveled to Lyon and Buenos Aires to stay with their counterparts and immerse themselves in a second language and culture.
The Pope Francis Scholars program supports Spanish language competency year-round, with 43 students currently participating across three cohorts. Scholars meet weekly to speak Spanish with peers and a faculty member, and are paired with mentors for weekly Spanish conversations. The Hyde Global Scholars program engages freshmen and sophomores in global speaker programming, additional global learning opportunities, and summer reading as they build toward the Global Certificate in their junior and senior years.
BC High students can engage with the Hyde Center's global education programming at every stage of their time at the school, from Hyde Global Scholars in freshman year through the Global Certificate track in junior and senior year. Exchange hosting, service immersion trips, and language programming all offer entry points at different levels of commitment.
Learn more about the Lawrence H. Hyde '42 Center for Global Education and the programs available to BC High students.