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Ivanhoe Grammar School’s Visit to Phnom Penh in 2024 to meet and tour with our students.
Cambodia is a beautiful country rich in history, culture, and hospitality. We are a nation that is truly welcoming to everyone from every corner of the world. On the 23rd June 2024, a group of around 100 high-school Australian students, their guiding mentors and teachers representing the Ivanhoe Grammar School, from Melbourne Australia, landed in the capital city of Phnom Penh to tour the country. This was the second tour of Cambodia post covid by Ivanhoe Grammar and part of their study visit was to spend a day with our 10 CBF Happy Scholarship students touring some of the major tourist and historical spots in the capital together. This included the Royal Palace, the Genocide Museum, and the Killing Fields and traditional Khmer dance performances at a local non-profit arts school – where they all got to join in on the fun with some of their own learned dance moves. To end the day everyone spent the evening together enjoying a dinner party on a tourist riverboat sailing along the Mekong river. Besides enjoying the food and the amazing vibrant scenes of Phnom Penh Capital at night, the students got to “hang” and just be teenagers out with each other and foster some friendships.
Such an experience is surely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian students that help to broaden their horizons. By visiting a developing Asian economy and interacting with less privileged peers, who speak English as a second language, helps them to gain new perspectives, whilst enjoying new experiences by immersing themselves in an exotic culture from the other side of the ocean. We hope such an encounter will help to build long-lasting memories and bonds between both cohorts of students, bridging the socio-economic and cultural divide, and quite possibly, inspire some of them to further pursuits that help to further break down the barriers between people and cultures making the world a better place for all.
As students and teachers from the Ivanhoe Grammar School in Australia will continue to visit Phnom Penh and Cambodia every year, we at CBF on the ground will continue to welcome them to our beautiful city and country, a small country with a big heart, the kingdom of wonders and, the land of friendly smiles. And if students and teachers from other schools in Australia, Europe, North America or the rest of the world are interested in experiencing Cambodia, then we’d gladly welcome that opportunity as well as we would be more than happy to connect and to build a mutually beneficial relationship.
CBF would like to acknowledge Ivanhoe Grammar as a partner who clearly sees the benefit that an education can bring to all children, and especially to those most needy. The yearly donation that they bequeath goes directly to help support all our students in the scholarship programme whilst the yearly visit of Ivanhoe Grammar students to Cambodia serves as a valuable opportunity to strengthen this relationship between both educational organisations and also importantly between the students from each country.
Learning Beyond the Classroom - A Culture & Career Camp to Siem Reap
For the very first time ever, our 10 CBF students were given a rare privileged once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn, explore and visit Cambodia’s ancient capital city of Siem Reap, widely renowned for her historical and cultural significance and charms. It was a great four-day tour for our students, seeing as many had never been on an overnight school camp or excursion before. It was full of vivid memories and unforgettable moments, where our students enjoyed visiting a host of popular tourist spots in the great city, such as the Angkor National Museum, the very popular downtown tourist centric old market and pub street, and the internationally renown and UNESCO world heritage listed ancient stone complex of Angkor. This famous archaeological site features many stone temples such as Bayon, Bakheng, Bonteay Srei, Pre Rup, Baphuon, Ta Prohm and The Terrace of the Elephants. Our group also paid a short visit to a traditional tourist village for a quick stroll and traditional snacks.
The trip allowed our students to see, learn, and explore, getting a sense of daily life of people in other parts of the country, beyond their own city homes, and communities of Phnom Penh. It was also a great bonding time as it allowed the fostering of a collective Happy Scholarship team spirit fortifying a group unity that will hopefully help them with their efforts for future team initiatives. However let’s not forget about all the great times and lasting memories that the group forged together away from all usual lives and daily stresses. On the final night after a pizza party (well they are young students) a group session was also held by the hotel pool where everyone was given the time to reflect and share with the group their impressions on this CBF trip and also importantly to discuss their future dreams in terms of education and careers. The trip ended with a mixed feeling of both happiness and nostalgia. Even now months after, our students nostalgically recall this lovely trip and its shared memories, and even go on to express their genuine hope and excitement for another adventure in the years to come.
At CBF we believe classroom based school learning is critically important for cognitive growth and character building, but to augment its critical relevance to the real-life world, students should have ample opportunities to immerse themselves in what they can learn, explore and experience beyond the classroom. This trip was definitely a worthwhile and immensely rewarding experience for our CBF students, and seeing as they all come from marginalized backgrounds it is very much something that they had never thought possible until now. It is only via the financial donations and support from the Ivanhoe Grammar School in Australia that this experience was made possible.. We all are grateful and beyond ecstatic for their generosity and commitment.
We are hopeful similar opportunities for our CBF students can happen every year, as it critically boosts their morale, character and brings about learning in the real world. CBF would gladly appreciate any help from any schools, universities, charities or corporations in the first world that shows genuine interest and care in offering us the necessary support critical to allow disadvantaged children the opportunity to grow and learn. And here’s hoping that Ivanhoe is not the exception. Wherever we are born and currently living, learning, studying, and working, we are all connected whole in the global village on the one planet we all share and call home.
Sending love and gratitude from our students here in Cambodia.
