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.

High School Students Travel to Denmark to Study Danish and VI Connections

Sikre Rejser! (Safe travels)

This Saturday VIMSIA students will embark on the second annual VIMSIA-Gefion Danish exchange program, accompanied by Mr. Ott and Mr. Broomes. This will be VIMSIA’s first major travel abroad program since the start of the pandemic.

Gefion Gymnasium, our partner school, is a world-class public high school located in the center of Copenhagen. Our partners at the school, Kristian Iversen and Bertha Rex Coley, are leading scholars on Danish and Virgin Islands history, with major projects in both Denmark and the Virgin Islands dedicated to scholarship and archival work in this field. Gefion and these partners work at the forefront of Danish society as it tries to understand this history and its legacy, and reconcile its troubled colonial past and relationship to the Virgin Islands. They are part of much larger processes underway in Denmark restoring the dignity of all people to its national curriculums, consciousness, and public spaces.

Student travelers, pictured left to right: Christine Rowe (grade 11), Dallas Broomes (grade 10), Andy Bornn (grade 10), Miles Broomes (grade 10), Sy Sebastian (grade 12).

Our students will spend time with fellow Danish students, scholars, curators, archivists, documentarians, and visual artists. They’ll explore the different ways that Danish society is dealing with this troubled past, and its legacy in the present. Additionally, students will explore what contemporary Danish society and life is like—visiting important sites in and around Copenhagen, seeing Hamlet`s castle, and taking a short trip to Malmo, Sweden. Participants will also attend a half day of classes at Gefion with their student hosts to get the authentic experience of Danish high school students.

Later in January, VIMSIA will host our two colleagues and eleven Danish students for ten days here in St. Thomas, exploring similar themes, histories, and stories. This is truly an amazing learning and growth opportunity for all students and participants in this exchange, and we are grateful and excited to resume the program after being shut down for two years due to the pandemic.

Remember, when you come to VIMSIA you get to see the world! Stay tuned for more updates.

Danish Student Exchange - An Adventure Packed Week

The visiting Danes have had an action packed week after arriving last Friday. The visitors, along with Bennett Ott and other VIMSIA community members spent Saturday hiking at Perseverance Bay and and discussing Botanical Colonization. On Sunday they went to Neltjeberg Beach to hike the Dorthea trail and explore reef damage and human impact upon those particular reefs. On Monday, Virgin Islands culture bearer Kwabeena Davis and local educator and writer Willie Wilson lead them on a journey through VI history, culture, story-telling traditions and musical forms. 

This Saturday, February 1st will the last full day of the exchange! Please join us at Magens to send our visitors off with VIMSIA community love. Mr. Ott will secure a spot on the far left side of the beach - please bring your own food and beverages.

Trip Report: Fall Break Exchange in Denmark

Fall break marked the beginning of the Gefion - VIMSIA exchange program. The week was intense and had a great impact for everyone involved.   The context and point of the program was historical and cultural explorations and exchange.  Each day was designed to explore not only the colonial history in the Danish West Indies, but more importantly and significantly how Danish society is coming to terms with their colonial history and experience.  This is part of a broader movement within Danish society to reshape their national mythology to include their role in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial exploitation and extraction in the islands. 

We toured museums with exhibits dealing with this past and paid particular attention to how they were presenting the story to the public.   We toured the city visiting important landmarks that were built with wealth extracted from the slave trade and colonial exploitation of the islands, learning that history is a story that is told not just through books, but the built world around us.  

We visited statues and works of public art recently commissioned and erected that honor important events such as 1848 emancipation or that honor the memory of important figures in the Virgin Islands such as Queen Mary and the four queens of the Fireburn revolt.  We visited the Royal Archives to see the importance of preservation of the past through historical documents and the limitations of the perspectives of they offer to historians.  Finally, we sat for a screening of the documentary We Carry Within Us, and follow-up discussion with the director about how we restore humanity to the past, about how Danish society is confronting uncomfortable truths of its past so that they can begin to have a more objectively honest view of their past and how individuals and communities can help to heal the living wounds of the past through action and service.  The program was phenomenal not only in terms of what the students were exposed to, what they learned, but also in the relationships and friendships formed.   There will be more to come next week from the student perspectives, stay tuned.

Eight Danish students and two instructors will be coming in January for their part of this years exchange.  We have four families lined up to host students but need an additional 6 families that would  be willing to host them for around 4 to 5 days (we are still finalizing their schedule of activities).   If anyone is interested or have questions please feel free to contact Mr. Ott for additional information.