Trevor Stokes, teacher, takes at-risk students up Mt. Kilimanjaro

Some of Trevor Stokes' students had never been outside of Vancouver, let alone British Columbia. But the Saskatoon-born teacher changed all that in March, by taking 15 of them to Tanzania and up the slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Stokes works for Streetfront, an alternative high school program based in one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.

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"There's an area of Vancouver that we refer to as the downtown East Side and it's sort of the inner city part of Vancouver," Stokes told Saskatoon Morning's Leisha Grebinski.  "They're kids that have sort of fallen through the cracks and are no longer part of the mainstream, traditional flow of the educational system."

Journey took years to plan

The trip took three years to prepare for, which Stokes said was daunting for  students who usually aren't used to planning more than two or three days ahead.

"For them to ... [even] get on the plane, that was pretty amazing in first place and to see them start to come to terms with the physical challenges that were going to be presented ... [that] was another amazing aspect to see," he said.

Stokes said there were many unfamiliar sights along the way as the group began to make their way up Africa's tallest mountain, 

"We started off in the jungle and there were monkeys everywhere and orangutans, and you name it as we were walking," he said. "So that's quite a difference from East Vancouver."

Students had to work together

Once on the mountain, Stokes said he began noticing a change as the teenagers worked together to reach the peak.

"The transformation, really more than anything, was just that they would give up themselves to allow the group to [succeed]," said Stokes, describing his students as usually "quite individualistic kids." 

"So for them, to really believe in the power of the group and the collective, that was a wonderful thing to witness."

For Stokes, reaching the summit with his students was especially profound. He said the moment prompted "more frozen tears" than he'd ever shed.

"They decided to keep moving and they didn't give up and they fought through immense battles personally and physically and there they were, at the very top of Africa."