This October, MetroPrep students are heading back to New York City.

From October 27–30, students will spend four days exploring art, theatre, history, architecture and culture through visits to museums, historic sites, neighbourhoods and cultural institutions across the city.

The excursion marks the return of a longstanding MetroPrep tradition. Ryan Seeley first began leading MetroPrep students to New York in 2001, and generations of students have since taken part in the experience. This year’s trip will be the school’s first to New York since 2022.

Four Days. One Extraordinary City.

The experience begins in Midtown Manhattan, where students will visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) before exploring some of New York’s most recognizable landmarks, including Fifth Avenue, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Bryant Park, the New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal. The first day concludes from the water, with an evening harbour cruise and views of the Manhattan skyline.

On the second day, students head downtown to explore Lower Manhattan, where some of the city’s most consequential history has unfolded. Stops include Wall Street and the Financial District, the 9/11 Memorial, the World Trade Center and the South Street Seaport.

That evening, the focus shifts from history to the stage as students experience one of New York’s defining cultural institutions: Broadway.

Art, Neighbourhoods and University Life

New York’s character is found not only in its landmarks, but in its neighbourhoods.

Students will explore Greenwich Village, Little Italy and SoHo, walk the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge, visit Chelsea Market and Hudson Yards, and experience the many different communities and public spaces that give the city its distinctive identity.

A visit to New York University will also introduce students to university life in the heart of Manhattan. For senior students beginning to think about what comes after high school, it is an opportunity to experience a very different kind of university campus, and imagine where their own paths might take them.

The trip concludes with another side of New York: Central Park, Strawberry Fields and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, bringing students from the landscapes of one of the world’s most famous urban parks into one of its great cultural institutions.

More Than a Trip

There is something different about learning when the places you’ve read about are suddenly in front of you.

A work of art is different when you are standing before the original at the Met. Modern history feels different at the 9/11 Memorial. Economics takes on another dimension on Wall Street. Theatre becomes something entirely different when the lights go down on Broadway.

And some of the most valuable experiences won’t appear on the itinerary at all.

They will happen while navigating the subway together, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, discovering a neighbourhood for the first time, sharing a meal or looking out across the Manhattan skyline with classmates.

These are the experiences that build curiosity, independence and confidence, and often become some of the memories students carry with them long after graduation.

The Tradition Continues

For more than two decades, New York City has been part of the MetroPrep experience.

This fall, a new group of students gets its turn.

New York City, here we come.