The Long Trip was revived in 1998 by Fern Khan, then Dean of Continuing Education, and Carol Hillman, a Bank Street alumna and former Board of Trustees member. Attendees to these "new" Long Trips include students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Bank Street. The twentieth of these trips in 2021 was virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the theme "Reconnecting with Communities from Past Trips."
The announcement for the trip read: "2020 took many things away but it has also provided us with a chance to slow down and find new means of connecting. The 2021 Long Trip will seek to do just this. Rather than a seven-day intensive excursion, we will take time to revisit communities virtually that we have connected within recent years, to hear how they are managing and adapting during these difficult times. We will meet with our friends at the Bogg Center, the Penn Center, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among many others, to ask how this moment has shaped them. What new needs, new problems, and new ideas have called for their courageous response? What do they hope for in the future?
Bank Street’s Long Trip was developed by our founder, Lucy Sprague Michell, who saw the Long Trip as a unique opportunity to “take in the world with all five senses alert” as the Bank Street credo calls us to do. When we feel the humid air as we disembark our plane or share a traditional meal prepared for us by community members, we find ourselves asking new questions about the way our geography shapes us and the way we shape our geography. However, Lucy also saw the Long Trip as a chance to consider other principles articulated in our credo. Among them “the ability to relinquish patterns that no longer fit the present while exhibit courage to work, unafraid and efficiently, in a world of new needs, new problems, and new ideas.” It is in the spirit of this principle that we are going to keep the Long Trip moving in 2021 with an adapted, online experience.
We would love for you to join us on this new Long Trip journey and will waive all fees for any faculty or staff member who can join us this year. While we are waiving the fees, we ask that you are participating in the whole event.
Abby, Carol, and Fern"
To view a timeline and map of the newer Long Trips, visit the Bank Street Continuing Professional Studies site.