Gobles history teacher and History Club sponsor Jim Wiseley explained that his motivation for taking students to places like Costa Rica is to make history and social studies real for his students. "Gobles students get to learn how other people live," Wiseley said. "Even small interactions teach them something valuable. When they go into a local store to buy a pop, they learn the food is different, and they learn about world economy when they have to change a dollar to the local currency and find out how far that dollar goes."

Gobles High School biology teacher and Biology Club agrees. "In the Bahamas students find there is a wealth of education that surrounds them," Lisowski said. "When they see a coral reef up close, they suddenly understand a lot more about environmental concerns and issues. They understand that how we live in Gobles, MI connects to what happens to fragile ecosystems. They see the trash deposited on the island that floats to the Bahamas from Africa on ocean currents. It really opens their eyes."

Since 1998 students in the Biology Club have traveled to San Salvador in The Bahamas to study the biology of coral reefs, with a focus on ecolgy. The trip is made possible through a partnership with the Gerace Research Centre, a former Navy base that was turned into a world-class university research station. Gobles High School is one of only two high schools in the country that uses the facility.

"Without a doubt our students and our program have been well received at Gerace," Lisowski said. "The people [who run the research station] understand how powerful the experience is for us. There is a wealth of hotspots on the island where we learn about everything from tropical ecology, to the history of slavery, and cultural learning that happens in our visit to a church, or to the high school on the island to interact with Bahamian students. "

Though other schools have programs that allow them to travel, there is something powerful about this international commitment from a small school like Gobles.

"Almost 100% of the students on our trips have never been out of the country," Wiseley said. "And many couldn't afford to travel without the support of the club. Starting in eighth grade, students can raise 100% of their trip expenses from club activities and fundraisers. We find a way so that any student who wants to go can afford to go."

This commitment changes the way students think, and the way people perceive our "small-town" school. History club students have traveled to Ireland and Italy during past trips, and will visit Greece in 2013, two years after the Costa Rica experience.

"Everybody thinks of Gobles as a little town, but we have an international program in our school," Wiseley said. "Every year up to thirty of our students travel with the History Club or the Biology Club somewhere in the world. That's almost half of every student in our graduating classes, for almost ten years. We think It's important, especially with as small as the world has become and will be for our students once they leave Gobles."

Without a doubt these experiences help students after they graduate when they have to move out and find their way in that world.