PGIA Students Return from Transformational Trip to Denmark
/“An experience that I'll never forget or take for granted” - Sy Sebastian, Grade 12
Welcome back! Five VIMSIA students have just returned from Denmark, where they had a special opportunity to connect with fellow Danish students and learn about the country’s role in shaping Virgin Islands history.
The exchange centered on understanding, remembering, and learning about Virgin Islands culture and history and the shared, and troubled legacy of Denmark's colonial role in shaping nearly 300 years of Virgin Islands history.
Students who attended the trip are Christine Rowe (grade 11), Dallas Broomes (grade 10), Andy Bornn (grade 10), Miles Broomes (grade 10), and Sy Sebastian (grade 12).
The students not only developed new understandings of both VI and Danish culture and history, but also of themselves and their own connection to the world and the sense of the other. For a taste of the experience, check out the video collage above!
"My family has roots in the Virgin Islands prior to Transfer Day, so I was already interested in our history with Denmark,” says Andy Bornn. "After this experience, it's more clear than ever how important the past is. But, we also have to focus on the future and pave a path for future generations."
Our partners at Gefion, Kristian and Bertha, and all the participating Danish students greet VIMSIA students at the airport upon arrival in Copenhagen.
After leaving Dyrparkhaven, students took a short tour of the nearby town exploring Danish functional design ideas at work in architecture. Students learned about the famous Danish architect, Arne Jacobsen, and his principles of design. Students then took a walk to the seashore, looking out from the light (also designed by Jacobsen) into the North Sea.
Students spent time with fellow Danish students, as well as scholars, curators, archivists, documentarians, and visual artists, learning about the shared history between the VI and Denmark. The exchange is VIMSIA’s first major study abroad program since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
"This experience provided me with a valuable international view on education, and really gave me something to compare my past and present experiences with,” says Dallas Broomes.
"This trip was really fun and incredibly beneficial. We learned a lot about the history between Denmark and the USVI while also experiencing a different country. Plus, I was able to make some wonderful new friends. I truly enjoyed my time there,” added Christine Rowe.
"The experience that I had in Denmark is one that I'll never forget or take for granted,” says Sy Sebastian. “It provided me with insight into a culture and lifestyle so similar but different from my own. I can't wait for the Danish students to have a similar experience in the VI."
VIMSIA students attended their first day of class at Gefion. Their first class was a visual arts class, and the second, pictured here, is a social science course. Students debated how societies should remember and deal with their colonial legacies through a series of prompts organized by their teacher and our partner at Gefion, Kristian Iversen.
After a morning of intense discussion with documentarian and visual artist Helle Stenum, Gefion and VIMSIA students visited an open air museum north of Copenhagen. There, students explored aspects of traditional Danish rural and peasant life in previous centuries, understanding the conditions that people lived in and the basic aspects of what day to day life would have been like.
After a long morning of deep, thoughtful debate and discussion, VIMSIA students spent a bit of time in Klampenborg, the site of an ancient medieval market, now a destination for modern Danes to take a break from Copenhagen and commune with nature. Students ended the visit to the park with a traditional carriage ride through the wooded trails of the park, seeing different sites.
Ghanian artist Bright Bimpong created four "Freedom" statues in 1998, representing one of the most important moments in Virgin Islands history, the emancipation of the enslaved in 1848. Each island was gifted a statute, and one was sent to Copenhagen in 2017 as part of the Transfer Day celebrations. Students visited the statue in Copenhagen, to learn more about this seminal event, and to pay their respect and honor the sacrifices of Virgin Islanders that came before them, a fought and sacrificed for their rights and freedom as human beings.