Eight lucky AHS students this year were offered an all-expense paid business trip to New York City, replete with meeting with the top private equity firms, a visit to the New York Stock Exchange, unlimited shopping sprees, flying privately, and eating at Manhattan’s finest restaurants.

“Basically the motto of the trip was shop til’ you drop. I don’t know about the rest, but I was just in it for the shopping and free stuff,” AHS senior Shannon Turbidy said.

First of all, AHS wants its students to look professional when in meetings and strolling the streets of the ‘Big Apple’. As soon as the group arrived, they were each given a $5,000 gift card to purchase business attire at Saks Fifth Avenue. While a few outfits from the Ralph Lauren and Prada departments made it difficult to stay within the budget, the group was all looking real stylin’ in no time. Besides having to look good for meetings, they needed to look good when walking through the lobby of their hotel.

“We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel on East 57^th Street. It was fine, worked for the six nights we were there,” AHS junior Harry Ferguson said.

The suites had amazing views of all of New York City and bathrooms were the size of a large classroom. Anything the students wanted to eat was right in the fridge or just a phone call away and served by their personal butler.

“James was such a babe,” AHS senior Claire Wittingham said.

He learned quickly that they liked the crusts cut off the bread of their sandwiches and chocolate dipped strawberries. Whenever they would return to the suite, the plate was full of the sweetest and juiciest strawberries, however, they did not want to spoil their appetites, for every evening, they sampled the fare of the finest restaurants in New York City. Everyone knows it takes months to score a reservation at The French Laundry or the Gramercy Tavern, but not for Chris Bonadies and Kim Martin! Every night, they sat down to five course dinners of the most delectable food. They ate at the best Italian, French and Asian restaurants in the city.

“I was worried about putting on a lot of weight, which would not have been good for my spring vacay to St. Barths, but it was okay because we were each given our own personal trainer from The Four Season Hotel Spa,” junior Frenchie Olivos said.

Does this sound like something that would be of interest to you?  I’d suggest you start buying flowers and chocolates for Kim Martin and Chris Bonadies so they’ll think of you for next year’s trip. ASAP.