Walking down the street in New York City is a lot different than walking down a street in St. Louis. Going from a car ride to school, to a subway trip to Rockefeller is a big difference and would be hard to get used to. New York had a lot of fun and amazing qualities to offer tourists and the citizen who live there.

“It was so different than St. Louis,” senior Abby Hurych said. “Riding the subway was an interesting experience and also stressful. But it was definitely fun once you get past the gates. My favorite part of the whole trip was being able to experience it with my friends in our small hotel room.”

This trip wasn’t just offered to anyone though. It was limited to the students at Liberty who are taking a business class and are in DECA. The trip was first offered to seniors – eight girls and eight boys total. If the spots were not filled, then it was offered to juniors.

Mr. Barnes and Ms. Taylor are the DECA sponsors and were in charge of the trip. Mr. Jarrett also tagged along on the trip. They took a group of Liberty students to New York last year as well and decided to continue the tradition this year. Over the course of the trip, students went to some of New York City’s most popular attractions.

“As long as there is interest, I will always take a group of kids to New York City,” Mr Barnes said. “It was a little more chaotic this year because we did everything with one less day than last year. But all in all I thought it was a successful and fun trip.”

The trip was a total of four days. The group flew down on Wednesday morning and stayed until Saturday evening. After flying in on Wednesday, the group checked in at the hotel and adventures around Times Square. On Thursday, they started out with a NBC Studio tour, then they continued to the Empire State Building. Lastly that night, everyone got to attend the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes.

On Friday, the first thing on the agenda was a tour of Madison Square Garden. After the tour, the groups had a choice to either rest and shop or go on a District Bus tour. At the end of the night, everyone had the opportunity to go to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. On Saturday, the final day, they had their last meeting at Macy’s with a presentation from a personal designer. From then until noon, groups had time to finish packing, shopping and resting until the plane ride back to St. Louis.

“Getting to experience things I wouldn’t be able to experience from home was fun,” junior Alexis Bentley said. “I liked getting to see so many different people from different place. In hotel, we heard so many different accents. My favorite part of the trip was walking through Times Square on the first night.”

The trip was an amazing experience for students. Activities such as touring Madison Square Garden and NBC Studios and meeting with a personal designer at Macy’s would all be difficult to partake in on your own time. Through DECA, Liberty students were able to see what it was like to ride a subway, walk blocks to get where you wanted to go, and experience a life in the city.