Field Trips: A Great Learning Method for Students

Kevin Gonzalez

(edited by Saul Flores and B.J. Mondesir)

Field trips are a good distraction for busy college students because it allows you to focus on things other than college work.

Recently Southwestern Adventist University’s business department went on a field trip to the Eleventh District Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. Our trip took almost half of the day. Many of the students dressed up semi-formally and others dressed casually to attend the trip. I was glad to take a break from our campus and go all the way to downtown Dallas.

We arrived at the Federal Reserve Bank and the tour began with a guide explaining to us the purpose of the Federal Reserve Banks. He explained many things. For example, he talked about how there are 12 districts in our nation. He talked about the creation of the banks and how the reserve banks are “the fuel to our economy.” That was a phrase used multiple times on our tour.

Interestingly, I learned that the Federal Reserve Banks are, for the most part, private banks with a sector in the public domain. There was so much to learn from that experience and really it would take another visit to understand it all. It was a different kind of learning and in some ways, a childish way of learning. There were many games for kids and people of all ages to interact on learning how banking works.

I don’t think that each class in our university needs to have field trips outside of campus. I do believe that each department should have one or two field trips in a school year. It really helps students see the materials they are studying in action. For example, business students would be able to visualize themselves in that environment which they are visiting. History majors, like myself, can visualize themselves working in the different branches in a museum or in the government.

It is very true that field trips help give a student’s mind a pause in a busy semester but the results of that pause is a student’s mind focusing on the future. The future of that student then becomes more of a reality each day because the student can see him or herself in their career.

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