Thurston Student Wins Trip to France

Aviva Meyers Aviva Meyers, a seventh grade student at Thurston Middle School, won an all expense paid trip to France, a contest sponsored by student travel company NETC.

Meyers’ French teacher, Randi Beckley, who has been taking students on yearly trips to France through NETC since 1998, urged her to enter at the last minute. The 12-year-old admits she didn’t think she would win.

The contest has two divisions, visual art and writing. Contestants were tasked with writing an essay and creating a lesson plan for students taking an NETC trip in a foreign city. Meyers wrote an essay about Aztec culture and people, and designed a lesson plan for making an Aztec carina, a flute-like instrument, out of clay. More than 100 students entered the contest, according to the company’s website.

Beckley said Meyers is an “A” student, adding, “She’s a very bright girl. She is the kind of kid that every teacher dreams about. She listens and hangs on every word I say. She asks intelligent questions. She attempts the language without fear of embarrassment or fear of mistake-making. She has a maturity beyond her years. She does exhibit this sense of self that most middle-schoolers are lacking. It could not have happened to a nicer kid.”

This will be Meyer’s first time out of the country, and she is looking forward to, “seeing all the historical landmarks. I think it will be really exciting. Like the World War II stuff.”

Though Meyers has been taking French on and off since she was an elementary student at Anneliese’s Manzanita School, she admits science, math and history are her favorite subjects.

When pressed about whether she would speak a lot of French on the trip or just slip into English with the other students, she said, “I think I will be able to advance in French by hearing the native speakers there.”