A group of students will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania during a January LEAP Course. (Photo: © Sergey Pesterev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The first Semester will be over in less than two weeks, and we will commence the holiday break. During this period, the F.I.S.U. World University Winter Games will be held in Lake Placid from 12-22 January 2023. There will be more than 2,500 participants from over 50 countries. As a result, Northwood students and faculty will take a longer break and return to campus at the end of January.
The extended break allows international students to return home after a busy year. From mid-January, special off-campus programming and L.E.A.P opportunities are planned, and several sporting teams are traveling to various locations for competition. Students are so excited to participate in these activities.
The U17 and U19 Soccer teams are traveling to Puerto Rico to compete in the Next Level Winter Invitational Cup. Teams from all over South and North America will come to participate in this high-level competition. The team will stay in Puerto Rico from January 23rd to the 29th. The team will tour Puerto Rico for the first few days and participate in several cultural activities before the competition starts. Christopher Green, a sophomore at Northwood, said, “I am really looking forward to going home and spending quality time with my family over Christmas. I am also looking forward to the Puerto Rico trip because I can’t wait to embrace Puerto Rican culture.”
“I’ve never been to Puerto Rico, so I am super excited to visit a new place in the world as well as catch up with my teammates after a long break,” said Hamish Riddell ‘26.
The Hockey teams also have exciting schedules and will look to add to their stellar performances so far this season. The Prep team will start their journey at Merrimack College for the True Cup challenge during the first weekend of January. The boys will meet back up in Buffalo for a training camp before heading to Detroit, MI for a PHC League event, followed by the MacPherson Tournament hosted by St. Andrews College in Aurora, ON.
The Varsity team will report to Salem, NH on January 12th as that will be their home base for an eight-day period where they’ll play games against Bridgton Academy, The Holderness School, The New Hampshire Monarchs, Avon Old Farms, and Salisbury. Then they return to Lake Placid for a slate of home games during the last weekend of January.
The Girls Hockey team will begin their January in Wellesley, MA for a showcase league event, followed by a short stint in Chazy, NY, a few games at St. Lawrence University before making their way to Philadelphia and Minnesota for the final two weekends in January. All teams are excited about what’s shaping up to be a great experience!
The L.E.A.P program offers a variety of courses. There will be 4 L.E.A.P programs, including an exhibition to hike Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, an exotic adventure to Saint Lucia, an art intensive in New York City, and voluntary work for the exciting F.I.S.U. Games. Mrs. Fagan, the coordinator of L.E.A.P, stated, “These L.E.A.P courses are for students who are not competing with their sport. All the courses are exciting, and the students will have an amazing experience.” An extremely exciting course offered this winter break is the Kilimanjaro adventure. This will be the first time in Northwood history that students will stand on top of one of the seven summits. The summit of Kilimanjaro is just below 20,000 feet (about the length of 60 city blocks)!
The overwhelming feeling is that the Semester and flown by so fast, and everyone is looking forward to the holiday break to reunite with family and friends. Happy holidays
