Dawn Meeks traveled abroad when she was a college student with her high school biology teacher and while there, fell in love with the history, architecture and cultural experiences.

After becoming a teacher, Meeks said she longed to broaden her own students’ view of the world, but early on in her career felt like parents would think she was too young to embark on such an adventure.

But after a friend fished out brochures Meeks had tossed in the garbage about European trips for students and nudged her to take a leap of faith, in 1993 Meeks made her first trip to Central Europe with 36 students in tow.

Now 25 years later, Meeks is still traveling with students to Europe, and on Thursday, June 7, a group of 65 will leave for a 16-day trip abroad that will include a Greek Island cruise.

“This year we are going to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the trip will be capped off with a cruise through the Greek Islands,” Meeks said.

Also, while in Rome, Father P.J. Curley, who is the retired priest at St. Michael Catholic Church, will say a private Mass in St. Peter’s at the altar of John Paul II.

Meeks said each tour is different every year, and in addition to this year’s travel schedule, countries visited have included Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, France, the Czech Republic, Austria and Turkey.

Initially, trips abroad were booked through EF Educational tours, but Meeks said after a longtime tour guide she used with the company created his own business, she now books with World of Knowledge Tours.

In the beginning, Meeks would plan out all of the tours, but now, she said, she lets the students have some input.

Meeks said all 27 trips she has organized have had their respective highlights, but those that stand out at the top of the list include being a part of a wedding in Pompeii and having the opportunity to hear Pope John Paul II speak in St. Peter’s Square. Other highlights have been visits to the island of Santorini and the Island of Patmos, where the monastery of St. John stands and below it where St. John wrote the Book of Revelations.

“You get to go down in it and it is really something to see where John laid his head,” Meeks said.

Attending the Golden Jubilee in London in 2002 was also a highlight.

“That was amazing. There were 3 million people on the mall in London and we were right in the middle. It was so fantastic. It was the most beautiful celebration, and of course we got to see the Royal family and that was really special,” Meeks said.

Also on one of the trips after the students had had the opportunity to see “The Phantom of the Opera” in London, the following day after arriving in Paris by the Eurostar train, they ran into Andrew Lloyd Webber and his son at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

“The kids just surrounded him and had the nicest conversation with him and told him they had seen Phantom the night before,” Meeks said, “And he asked them if they had liked it.”

Other notable events were sitting on the tarmac in Greece while NATO troops were landing and witnessing an America flag burning in Munich in the 90s.

“We had to be rushed back to the hotel after this,” Meeks said.

Of all the countries Meeks said she has toured, Switzerland is her favorite with Italy coming in as a close second.

However, if she thought she could move to Switzerland, Meeks said, she would be there tomorrow and one of the reasons why is because of a friendship she has developed through the years.

“We started going to Wengen in Switzerland, and we have been going there for 17 years, and we always stay at this place called the Hotel Falken, (a world Heritage site, which is a place that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as having special cultural or physical significance,” Meeks said.

“The Hotel Falken is a Victorian hotel and through the years I have become really good friends with Sina Cova, and she has always treated the Vicksburg kids like her own,” Meeks said.

“The site is way up high in the mountains in a care- free village, and the Hotel Falken is like the centerpiece of our tours now. Everybody wants to go there because everybody has heard of Sina, and everybody wants her grilled cheese sandwiches in the middle of the night.”

And going there, Meeks said, is like traveling back in time.

“When people go to Europe they have this idea of what they expect, and they never really find it, but not in the Falken, because it has the quintessential old European charm. It is just absolutely wonderful,” Meeks said.

A student must be at least 16-years-old to participate in a tour, Meeks said, with the average age of those who travel being 17.

Meeks said she looks at the trips as her service to the community.

“I think this is the only way to break down barriers. We have too many barriers in this country of ours this day, and I think that if these kids can get out of this little bitty microcosm of society that we live in here and see what the rest of the world is like, it helps contribute to their world view,” she said.

Before each trip, students are required to attend monthly meetings starting at the first of the year, and during these meetings students will listen to lectures, receive handouts about the countries they will be touring and a copy of Meek’s power point presentation.

“And we do a packing lesson,” Meeks said, because only one suitcase is allowed for each traveler.

Meeks said the European trips are not private events and are open to anyone in the community. Those going must have good deportment or someone Meeks know,s however.

Adult trips have also been offered and one is currently in the planning stages.

Meeks is passionate about what she does and said each trip she has been moved to tears when she watches students experience life outside Vicksburg and when asked how much longer she plans to travel abroad with students, she said, “I guess as long as there is a breath in me.”