CCSD Families Invited to Learn About Student Trip to Japan at April 30 Info Night

Cherokee County School District families have a rare chance to send their middle or high schooler halfway around the world, and the first step is a meeting at River Ridge High School at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30.

The informational session covers a districtwide educational trip to Japan planned for Summer 2028, open to all current seventh- through 10th-grade students across CCSD. The program spans the country from Kyoto to Tokyo, taking students through centuries-old temples, the streets of one of the world's most dynamic cities, and aboard Japan's iconic bullet train network. Experiencing Japanese cuisine is also part of the itinerary, the kind of detail that tends to stick with a teenager long after the history lesson fades.

Thursday's meeting will walk families through the full itinerary, student safety protocols, available payment plans, and an early registration discount for those who move quickly. With the trip roughly two years out, the timeline is intentional: international travel at this scale takes financial planning, and organizers want families to have every advantage in making it work.

Sequoyah High School teacher DeAnda Davis is serving as the point of contact for the program. Sequoyah is one of several high schools within CCSD, a district that serves tens of thousands of students across Cherokee County, and Davis can be reached directly at deanda.davis@cherokeek12.net for questions before or after the meeting.

Families who can't make it to River Ridge in person can participate virtually, but an RSVP is required either way to receive location details or the virtual meeting link. RSVPs can be submitted online in advance through the CCSD website. Every family that RSVPs and attends, whether in the room or on a screen, will be entered to win one of two $500 scholarships toward the trip cost.

For Cherokee County students studying world cultures, history, or geography, Japan offers something few destinations can match: the ancient and the ultramodern in close proximity, from Kyoto's temple districts to Tokyo's skyline. Programs like this one bring classroom concepts to life in ways that tend to shape students' perspectives well beyond the school year. The April 30 meeting at River Ridge is where that journey begins.