After more than a year of planning, 16 students left on a long-awaited transatlantic adventure to participate in an international meeting of schools in the Vatican City over winter break. Music students were offered the opportunity in the fall of 2014 to participate.

“I was really really excited for the trip. I started counting down 200 days before we left,” junior Angelina Adams said. “Right before we left I was really nervous that we would miss a flight, or something would go wrong; but it all ended up working out.”

Sion was invited to Rome for the 40th Pueri Cantores international meeting by Musical Celebrations International.

According to pcchoirs.org, Pueri Cantores is an international Catholic choral organization that provides opportunities for school aged youth choirs from all backgrounds to participate in liturgical music. MCI arranged this meeting for the Pueri Cantores organization of schools from around the world. The trip offered Sion girls an opportunity to encounter students of similar ages from all around the globe with numerous concerts, meetings and Masses.

The eight days spent in Rome consisted of sightseeing, Mass attendance, singing, shopping and free time to explore the city streets. One tour guide spent the week with the Sion group bringing them to places like the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pantheon and the Forum.

“Having been an art education major through college and having to take a lot of art history, getting to see those places that I had read about and studied about for years in college was really education-affirming,” Fine Arts Director, and trip chaperone, Jennifer Campbell said.

Students stayed in a religious house 20 minutes from the city center for cost efficiency, privacy and safety. The quaint rooms of the religious house resembled college dormitories more than an actual hotel room, but the breathtaking house grounds more than made up for what the interior lacked.

“[On new year’s eve] we heard fireworks, so we went outside and ran to this hill at the edge of the grounds where we could see all the fireworks that were going off in the city,” sophomore Anna Tomka said. “They also had great gardens in the back, and a nice soccer court.”

During the day, the viewing benches atop a hill on the house grounds looked out onto the abundance of tall, full, trees, while a white gravel pathway wound from the bottom of the hill up into the densely wooded distance. Upon taking this path, students viewed a small creek, a religious garden, an abandoned shed overgrown with flowers, and a neighboring field of livestock could all be found as almost complete silence surrounds, save the chirping of birds and the occasional squawk of one of the numerous wild peacocks students spotted around the grounds throughout the week.

The trips infusion of religion into nearly every tourist spot continually reestablished a faith focus for students.

“With it being Pope Francis, I thought this was an important one because he embodies the mission that Sion has, so for me that was  a big part of [choosing to accept the musical conference invitation],” Mulkey said.

Students sang for the Pope and worked with schools from all over the world for a combination of different languages and cultures through song.

“The overall concept of bringing people from around the world together to celebrate peace through music is something that speaks strongly to me, and it seemed to fit well with Sion’s overall mission,” Mulkey said.

Pueri Cantores organized its first international musical meeting just after WWI as a way to promote peace amongst the younger generations whose countries were at odds at the time. Flag ceremonies and concerts throughout the week with all students having to learn and sing numerous songs outside of their native language exposed all involved to cultures that they would not normally so closely encounter.