Belonging Field Trip with Abby Hoerler

Rachel O'Malley

McKay Student Ambassador

Elementary Education

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One of the most enriching aspects of being a student at the McKay School of Education is the chance to participate in a Belonging Field trip. This is an opportunity that allows future educators to grow in their understanding of culture, inclusion, and connection. These transformative trips have taken students all over the world including places like Hungary/Austria, Boston, Alabama, Thailand, Ghana, Peru, Uganda and Kenya. On these trips, students have been able to grow in their skills as educators and serve others. For Abby Hoerler, a senior in Elementary Education,, the experience of going on a Belonging Field trip to Boston was much more than a travel opportunity as it became a turning point for her life. 

Abby recalls being invited on the trip at a time when she was struggling personally. She

describes, “I was feeling very not loved or noticed at the time in my life and was going through a rough patch”. When her professors approached her about joining the trip, it felt like a direct answer to her prayers. She shared, “They said I had come to mind when thinking about the trip. It was exactly what I needed.” 

During the trip, Abby was deeply moved by the opportunity to walk the Trail of Tears and

learn about the Adams family, gaining firsthand insight into histories that are often only read about in textbooks. Another one of her favorite parts was visiting the temple. “It was a great way to connect all belonging and how we always belong in the gospel,” she explained. “Our Savior wants us all to belong, and we all belong to Him.”

This deeper understanding of belonging wasn’t just a personal change but it also shaped how she sees her future role as a teacher. Abby came home from the experience more committed than ever to creating a classroom environment where every student feels seen and included. “Everyone is different and everyone has a different upbringing,” she says. “As a teacher, I need to make sure that everyone in my classroom has an opportunity to feel like they belong. And to teach them how belonging can be found in everything we learn.”

Abby also found joy in the simple, tangible experiences of the trip, like being in Boston’s humid, rainy weather. She describes how it made it feel more real as she could really connect to what life would have been like there.

For students who might feel unsure about going abroad for an extended period, Abby offers this encouragement: “I don’t like being gone for long trips or a semester abroad but this was the perfect opportunity for me to feel comfortable being out of town. But I made some of the greatest friends in the major and learned so much more about history and why things happened the way they did and what it feels like to belong.”

In the end, the trip gave Abby more than just new friends and historical knowledge. It also gave her a renewed sense of purpose, a deeper understanding of the gospel, and the confidence to create spaces of belonging in her own classroom one day.

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