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Academic Trips
Experiential learning is an important part of learning, and ANC is excited to be able to provide educational trips for our students.
2025-2026 Science Trip
Costa Rica Science Trip | June 9-17, 2026
ANC is planning a science trip to Costa Rica shortly after graduation, from June 9-17, 2026. Anyone is welcome to go on the trip, whether they are an ANC student or not. Faculty and non-faculty adults are also welcome.
The 9-day trip will go to San Jose, Arenal, Monteverde, Puntarenas, and then return back to San Jose. Along the way, participants will get to see a volcano, visit hot springs, kayak on a beautiful lake, go horseback riding, do a zipline, visit a biological reserve and national park, spend time at a beach, go on a crocodile safari, and see lots of local wildlife.
People can sign up for the trip any time before it leaves, but if they sign up by 9/30/25, they will get a $250 discount.
ANC plans to do science trips about every four years, with prior trips having visited Costa Rica (2012), Ecuador (2015), and Iceland (2019).
Please contact dave.keith@ancss.org with questions.
2026-2027 Spanish and French Exchange Trips
Spanish Exchange | March 5-15, 2027
See photos from the 2025 Spanish Exchange here.
ANC is currently planning their seventh exchange with La Purísima school in Valencia, Spain, during the 2026-27 school year. ANC students and teachers will travel to Valencia over spring break 2027 to live with host families, attend classes and tour Valencia as well as spend a weekend in Madrid. Our visit to Valencia will coincide with preparations for the region’s biggest festival of the year: Las Fallas. We will get to experience the daily fireworks, numerous parades and gigantic ninots–huge paper-mache statues that commemorate and satirize the past year. In Madrid we will visit old Madrid with La Puerta del Sol and La Plaza Mayor. We will also visit the Museo Reina Sofia (home of Picasso’s Guernica) and the Museo del Prado (home of works by Titian, Bosch, Velázquez, El Greco and Goya) and top off our stay with a Flamenco show.
The Spanish students will be coming to ANC (dates TBD) to stay with host families, attend ANC classes and also take day trips to surrounding points of interest.
Since this is an exchange, students who plan to travel to Spain are also expected to host. Students will be matched by the teachers and ANC students will stay with the same Spanish student he or she hosted. If there is an impediment to hosting (such as being a resident student) we can work together to find alternate arrangements for the students.
The trip is open to any ANC student, although some knowledge of Spanish language is necessary to live with a host family for a week. Spanish 1 students have gone on both of the previous exchanges with great success. Click here for itinerary and prices. We will find out in the spring if financial aid is available. Please contact sarah.waelchli@ancss.org for more information or for registration instructions.
Follow our Instagram page to see recaps from the 2025 trip and updates to the 2027.
French Exchange | March 7-17, 2025
Year two with the high school Le Mirail in Bordeaux is coming up! ANC students will be staying with host families and attending school in beautiful Bordeaux and spending a weekend in Paris during spring break 2025. Some instagram pics and videos of ANC students in Bordeaux in 2023 give a taste of the amazing experience they had.
The French students will be coming to ANC some time after spring break to stay with their ANC partner's family, attend ANC classes and also take some trips to local points of interest.
Hosting is, of course, an integral part of an exchange, but if a student with an inability to host is interested in participating, s/he should reach out to Mrs. Connelly to investigate possible alternatives.
Students who may not be ready or able to travel to France but would like to participate in the exchange are invited to host. There are many French students who want to visit ANC so the demand for host families is high! Contact holly.connelly@ancss.org for more information.