GLA Blog » Thoughts on International Education

Your teen is bright, motivated and ready to plan their summer.  A-hem?   This is where you come in.

The best way to help your teen plan a meaningful, productive summer is to connect with other  parents who’ve had recent success.  They know how crucial it is to make the most of summer break and how to sort through the many options out there.

Thankfully, there’s an incredibly helpful Facebook group specifically for parents whose kids have taken part in service-learning programs abroad.  The members of this group have been through the entire process and get down to the nitty gritty before your very eyes.  (They’re even happy to answer your questions.)

Just a couple of clicks to find out:

• How did you choose a destination country?

• How safe did your son or daughter feel?

• Did your teen eat well? Make friends?

• Did the counselors live up to their bios?

• Would you – and your son or daughter – do anything differently?

Simply follow this link and connect instantly with parents like you.  Drop in anytime to ask a question or find out what other parents are talking about.  Don’t just take our word… take theirs!

Having interviewed candidates for Yale, my alma mater, I’m often asked by parents and students how Global Leadership Adventures can enhance a college application.  My standard response is to quote the Yale website: “Yalies set out to make our world better…We are looking for students…to become the leaders of their generation in whatever they wish to pursue.”

Great, but what in the world does that mean?!  How do high school students become leaders and make the world better?  Every year, parents and students misinterpret what colleges are looking for and invest time and energy into misguided pursuits.

While I don’t claim to know everything that happens in the admissions office, I’d like to dispel what I believe are three myths about college applications and summer programs.

Myth 1: Volunteering abroad helps you get into a good college

Simply volunteering abroad will not help you get into a good college.  Rather, it’s what you learn that can make a difference.  On a GLA program, you will volunteer in a developing country and experience a culture and lifestyle very different from your own in an authentic, non-touristy community.   In that environment, GLA teaches you to reflect on your experience:  How is this country different from yours?  How can you connect your knowledge and talents to those in need?  Where can your passion lead you?  This level of experience and reflection helps you unlock your passions and generate plenty of talking points for college essays.  That’s what colleges look for in a successful applicant.

Myth 2: Colleges define “leadership” as Student Council President, School Paper Editor, etc.

True, leadership is a key characteristic of the strongest applicants to top universities.  But it’s not just about accumulating a laundry list of titles.  It’s also about your level of maturity, the types of challenges you’ve faced, and a sustained commitment to helping others.  GLA believes leaders are made, not born.  Through group discussion, meaningful service, workshops, exposure to experts, and excursions, GLA students cultivate their leadership potential.  They  tackle tough questions, learn to welcome differing opinions, and  begin affecting change within themselves their communities, and the world.  That’s how colleges define leadership.

Myth 3: A so-so GPA or less-than-stellar SAT score will prevent you from getting into a good university.

Got some bad grades freshman year? Your GPA not quite where you want it to be?  Don’t worry, all hope is not lost!  There’s still time to turn things around.  Colleges absolutely do look at academic achievement.  However, they also want to see passion and a common thread that weaves throughout your application.  My college roommate at Yale had a so-so GPA, but was admitted for his non-academic achievements.

Do you like biology and animals?  Pursue that passion during the summer, whether it’s volunteering abroad to protect endangered species, starting an animal rights organization at school, or taking an advanced biology class at a local college.  That’s a concrete step towards turning it around.

I hope you found these insights useful and I welcome your feedback, anytime!

Sincerely, Mike Shangkuan

Managing Director – Global Leadership Adventures

About the author:  Mike Shangkuan graduated from Yale with a BA in Economics and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.  He is currently Managing Director of Global Leadership Adventures.

There’s really no place like a rainforest. No, really. These amazingly diverse forests deep in Central America do more than you might think for the environment of the whole world.

Though Costa Rica seems like a tiny dot on a map compared to some of the states and geographical regions in North America, it harbors one of the world’s most incredible places: thousands of acres of richly biodiverse rainforest land.

Why are rainforests important?

Climate Matters

Think back to science class. Through respiration and the regular processes of growth and decay in nature, plants give the world oxygen. That oxygen is now more important than ever, with all the pollution created by our increasingly industrialized culture.

Rainforests give back a huge amount of clean, fresh air into the environment — and that makes a worldwide difference. For instance, the fresh, clean air of the Costa Rican rainforests benefits more than just Costa Rican residents; it actually positively affects all of the world’s climates, helping to keep them balanced.

This is just another marvelous feature of a planet whose processes all work together better than a puzzle to form a coherent, healthy whole, and you can make a difference in helping to sustain it.

Biological Diversity

Rainforests also provide a home to thousands of plants and animals that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. According to researchers, there are as many as 12,000 different kinds of plants, 838 species of birds, over 1,200 different types of butterflies, well over 400 different species of reptiles and amphibians (that’s a lot of lizards and snakes!) and about 232 species of mammals.

Few regions anywhere in the world are quite as biologically diverse as the Costa Rican rainforests. These are key areas of the world to protect.

Ways to Make a Difference

Get out there

So, what can you do to help protect this one-of-a-kind resource? Well, you’ve got a few options. GLA’s Nature’s Kaleidoscope service program lets high school volunteer abroad students experience that incredibly diverse ecosystem, work with researchers to help protect the rainforests, and learn more about ways they can apply those conservation skills in their own communities.

As part of the Nature’s Kaleidoscope program, students will spend a summer volunteering in rural communities surrounded by rainforests, talk with the locals (maybe brush up on their Spanish a bit) and learn to identify the plants and animals they see around them.

High school volunteer abroad participants will also get to help build tree nurseries and plant trees to help re-forest deforested land and even work with biologists to collect species as part of an ongoing research project.

Help from a Distance

Though going to an area and working with your own hands is the best way to truly appreciate the culture you’re making a difference in, you don’t actually have to log all those airline miles to make a difference. Programs like the Adopt-An-Acre organization allow you to get involved and make a difference from your own home.

If you can’t travel to Costa Rica to work in the rainforests yourself, you might even want to consider sponsoring someone else to go work with those in the local community. Don’t underestimate the difference you can make right from your own home!

Regardless of what you choose, knowing the situation of the rainforests – and of the environment in your own area — is the first step to working toward a beautifully sustainable world.

The world is talking about “green” living – sustainability and energy efficiency to protect our environment, both at home and abroad. Through local efforts like the Portland Sustainability Institute and Siemens’ National League of Cities, individual boroughs and towns across the U.S. are taking action to improve the health of both residents and the environment they live in.

The Portland Sustainability Institute – and organizations like it in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta and many other locations across the nation – find and implement unique ways to capitalize on limited city space. Organizers and volunteers use rooftops, playgrounds, courtyards and public areas to cultivate healthy, “green” space.

These spaces help make the most of urban areas to build healthy, environmentally-friendly cities that couple efficiency for residents with care for the environment that will make it habitable and welcoming for future generations.

Sustainability Efforts in America

The Sustainable Cities Institute sponsored by Siemens Corporation makes a strong case for a green infrastructure. But how can the bridges, roads, tunnels and transportation systems that make our society work really be “green”? It takes a little creativity and research of some of the problems these urban areas face to find new ways.

The environmentally aware have found many creative ways to craft an infrastructure that will form the foundation for green cities that will be sustainable for many generations to come.

Infrastructure Matters

By crafting roads and building in ways that support healthy stormwater runoff, pollution can be curtailed before it causes major problems for a city’s water supply. Efforts like this do more than just helping the environment; they also help improve public health, save on energy costs and diminish the damages of flooding, especially in flood-prone areas.

Green Roofs

Depending on the location and architecture of the space being considered, green roofs are also a great way to get growing things into a concrete jungle, brighten a space, provide natural insulation that can help reduce heating and cooling costs, and possibly even reduce greenhouse gases.

By thoughtfully reworking neighborhoods and using green practices in new construction and infrastructure design, city planners and developers are finding countless creative ways to save energy costs. But this trend isn’t just related to America or its cities.

Going Green Overseas

Even when we step outside our comfort zones and into an unfamiliar field to study abroad or volunteer overseas, we have options to share some of what we’ve learned with different cultures and help set up/teach green practices around the world.

GLA offers a selection of service trips that let you get involved in protecting the environments of other nations, working toward sustainability and conservation of beautifully unique, biodiverse areas. High school summer programs allow future leaders and city planners to get a taste of another culture and learn about conservation and city planning. This type of study trip makes a fantastic investment of a summer that will pay dividends for life.

Here are a few of GLA’s top environmental high school volunteer abroad programs that let students experience the diversity of green culture for themselves.

Empowering Island Communities in Bali

As if it weren’t enough to spend a summer on a beautiful Pacific island, now students can also get work with cutting edge non-profit organizations on the Empowering Island Communities service trip. Students also help out with sustainability projects unique to an island culture.

Protect the Pacific in Costa Rica

GLA’s Protecting the Pacific service trip gives you the chance to explore the lush Costa Rican rainforests and ways to conserve this Central American gem. Students and volunteers learn about conservation of beautiful ocean waters — and maybe even surf the waves and snorkel to see the rich, diverse ecosystems living under the surface!

Sustainability in India

A trip to India gives volunteers a look into the environmental sustainability issues surrounding the Himalayan mountains, especially small Tibetan villages and the challenges residents face. By hiking those snow-capped mountains and hearing from refugees of the Tibetan refugee community, students will get a taste of sustainability and culture they couldn’t find anywhere else.

Spending a summer overseas can be one of the most fulfilling, rewarding experiences of your life. But it can be tough to get used to being away from home. All the things that make travel worthwhile – the new perspective you gain on the world and the unfamiliar cultures you’ll experience – can also be some of the most challenging aspects of travel.

You’ll be sleeping in a different bed, hearing a different language spoken and getting to know people you’ve never met. That’s a lot to take in at once! But overcoming homesickness is completely doable. Here are a few tips.

1. Get out there

Crowds in a foreign subway station? You can handle it! When you find a situation that makes you uncomfortable, take the time to overexpose yourself to it until you’re more relaxed there. By getting out of your comfort zone immediately, you’ll find that the transition is much easier to make.

2. Eat what the locals eat

Trying new things is just another way to immerse yourself in a new culture. The traditions surrounding a meal tell you a lot about local life. Figuring out what you like and where to find it will make your stay in a foreign country much more comfortable.

3. Use social media

Take advantage of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to stay in touch with your friends back home. Even if you don’t have an international cell phone plan, you can use the Internet just about anywhere you are to stay connected to friends and family.

4. Plan for emergencies

By knowing where you are, how to contact others with whom you are traveling and how to ask for help in your volunteer abroad situation, you’ll feel in control of your situation and ready to handle whatever comes up.

5. Have safe lodging 

Our homebase lodging allows you to stay with other students so you can stay in a home-away-from-home environment which is comfortable, safe, and secure, and brings a sense of community to your group.

6. Get into a routine

It’ll help you feel in control of the situation and make you feel like you’re living a normal life, rather than just floating around the world on a whim.

7. Look for gifts for friends

You’ll feel more connected with them. And they’ll thank you for it! Even a trinket from a foreign country can mean the world to a friend back home.

8. Take time to be a tourist

Go see everything there is to see when you have time — you can hit the tourist highlights as well as the local ones.

9. Exercise regularly

When you’re active and moving around, you feel better about yourself and the world around you. The same is true when you’re studying abroad.

10. Find your hobbies

Chances are good you can find your hobbies and expand on them while you travel!

Ah, summer. So much free time. How about balancing that epic-level mellowness with an amazing adventure? Mix up your usual summer routine with a GLA summer service trip! You’ll meet amazing people, see exotic landscapes and experience life-changing leadership on a global scale. No offense to ice cream and public pools, but a GLA high school summer program will probably trump your standard summer daze.

Partnering with the Peace Corps, GLA volunteer abroad programs are built around service themes like Environment and Ecology and Poverty Alleviation. GLA service adventures offer opportunities to serve in six regions.

Africa

Want to add “building a village” to your high school resume? GLA African programs feature three program options in Ghana and Tanzania. Get involved with GLA in Africa and you’ll experience:

• A river voyage to the Gulf of Guinea
• Building solutions to improve sanitation for African communities

Asia

Want to combine global leadership with colorful backdrops and mysterious landscapes? An Asian adventure with GLA could be just what you need. GLA service trips to Asia feature four programs in three country destinations. Asia GLA trips let you:

• Bathe elephants in a river and then ride them through the jungle
• Zip line through the rainforest

Central America

With trips to Costa Rica, and Guatemala, GLA Central American service adventures offer themes around Sports, Poverty Alleviation and Spanish. These program highlights will get your inner ambassador moving:

• Hike a volcano
• Volunteer at a village primary school

Latin America

A GLA service adventure in Latin America gives you the chance to get the whole family involved! Here’s what you can expect:

• Improve the education of Mayan children
• Visit a Mayan market

South America

White water rafting through the Andes mountains and exploring Machu Picchu. Sound like fleeting fantasies? Fantasy land just got real. When you volunteer with GLA in South America you can expect to:

• Bike through the Sacred Valley
• Snorkel with sea lions

The Caribbean

GLA’s Caribbean programs offer trips to the Dominican Republic and Guatemala with a variety of themes from Sports to Public Health. Make a difference while you soak up the sunshine with program highlights that include:

• Contribute to reforestation projects
• Hike through 12 waterfalls in the rainforest

You’re getting ready to leave the country and you’re viewing the suitcase as half empty. You feel like it should be stuffed with every imaginable technological tool you have to ensure that your trip is a success. Here’s a pro tip for your service learning adventure: sometimes less is more. Instead of taking all of your gadgets, just pack the ones that will actually make your trip better.

Follow these travel technology tips to determine what to leave and what to take.

Take With

Camera

An obvious essential when you’re going to be exploring the world as a volunteer abroad student! It would just be a sad situation to come back from traipsing across the rainforest or visiting African villages, and not have any pics to prove it.  If possible, take a lightweight camera so that it’s easy to tote.

Universal Adapter

You’ll find that a universal adapter will become your best friend during international travels. Without them, your essential gadgets will be useless. Make sure to bring a converter too so that you don’t fry your electronics.

Leave Home

Cell Phone

Before you pass out, note that “a” cell phone is fine to take, just not “your” cell phone. You could rack up costs quickly with international rates and roaming charges if you try to use your own device. Instead, consider renting a phone or talking with your provider about travel plan options.

Electronic Translator

Though useful, this device is also distracting. By depending on your translator for all communication you could easily create a crutch that keeps you from engaging with local culture. If you bring a translator, don’t rely on it for every conversation. Instead, observer, interact and engage.

Kate Woodruff interviews her mom, Lynne, about her experience sending a child on a high school abroad program. Read what Lynne has to say from a parents perspective:

Were you nervous about your student flying alone? How did this experience turn out?

Lynne: Yes, I was a little nervous because it was the first time she traveled alone, and so far away. I had every confidence that she would be okay and she was, but I was still nervous about her traveling alone, especially outside of the country. Before the trip I had contacted two other students’ parents from our area to let them know what flights my daughter was taking. It was a good idea because another student was able to book the same flights and make the trip with my daughter. They ended up sharing flights both there and on the way back, so they were able to stick together and find their way through both the airports in Japan and in Bangkok, despite the language barrier. We had also arranged for airport staff to help them find the trip director once they had gotten to Bangkok International Airport. As far as these things go, I don’t think we could have hoped for a better experience traveling.

What concerns did you have about sending your student on a GLA program? What happened with those concerns?

Lynne: Some of my concerns were infectious diseases, though we were told that no vaccinations were required. As a parent, it’s sort of my job to worry, especially concerning a trip so far away and with limited communications. She did not get a disposable cell phone, so we communicated mostly through e-mail. While we were expecting her to find a phone or get a phone card there, e-mail turned out to be sufficient communication for us. I was also worried that my child might get separated from the group or get lost. I had heard stories about kidnapping in foreign countries, which were disconcerting, but I didn’t want to let it affect my daughter’s excitement about the trip. I had faith in GLA’s 5-Point Safety System and the program staff and I knew my daughter had common sense and know-how enough to take care of herself if needed. Most of all, I was worried that my child wouldn’t have fun, but my fears were unnecessary because she ended up having an excellent time.

What were you hoping your student would gain from this experience? Were your expectations met, and if so, how?

Lynne: I was hoping that my daughter would be able to see and understand a new culture, and recognize some of the difficulties people face in other parts of the world. I was hoping that she might get an idea about what she might like to do in life, because she had been struggling to decide on possible majors for college. After the trip, and a few other related influences, she is seriously considering becoming a doctor or a chemical engineer to help those suffering both in America and abroad. She was so affected by the people she met in Thailand and decided that she may want to dedicate her time to helping those suffering who cannot assist themselves. Because of this trip, she hopes to return to Thailand and other countries to help those afflicted with disease, poverty, and other difficulties. My expectations were exceeded because my daughter loved the experience so much, she came back suggesting that the rest of the family visit Thailand and incredibly enthusiastic about the culture and all of her experiences.

Did you notice any differences in your student immediately after they returned home from their program? Two months after their program?

Lynne: My daughter seemed so much more confident upon returning, and much more mature. She was so enthusiastic about the food, especially the different spices she was able to sample and cook with—she started adding pepper to everything. I think this trip opened her mind to a whole new way of living, not only in the food, but the dress, the mannerisms, the attitude, the culture. She came back with a whole new perception of her own life. Imagine coming back to New Jersey from a place dubbed “the land of smiles”— it was a pretty stark contrast. A few days after she came back, I noticed she was very sad to have left such a place, among other emotions. Even a few months after the program ended, she seemed to miss the Thai culture and every part of it. One thing she does not deal well with is monotony, and this trip was an ideal break from a routine she had embraced for 16 years. Though she was happy to be back, I could see that she did miss Thailand and that she had developed a new desire to travel and experience other cultures first-hand.

Do you feel like this experience changed your student’s college choice or career path? How?

Lynne: Visiting Thailand definitely changed her plans for the future. I think it says a lot for someone her age to have the desire to visit a place so far out of her comfort zone, and that alone shows divergent thinking, but to have actually gone on a trip like this and gained the perspective she did definitely altered her aspiration to actually follow through with plans of philanthropy. She now has concrete ambitions and feels as though Thailand is a place she would love to return to. She definitely plans to take advantage of a study abroad program once she enters college; she has a new respect for travel and encountering cultures different from her own. She may decide to do work-study in a foreign country, if available through her school, and it would be even better if there were a job available in Thailand. I was so pleased with her experience on this trip and I am so grateful to GLA for giving her the experience of a lifetime and the perspective most people only get much later in their lives.

Ever thought about what problems you’re “supposed” to have…or not as a teenager? In a recent HuffPost piece, college freshman Alexis Jane Torre lays out a number of problems teens are “supposed to have,” including:

• Your crush of two years doesn’t know your name

• Your parents don’t understand you

• Your best friend doesn’t get back to you

In other words, don’t stress the “to-be-expected.” Sound advice. But maybe you’ve heard this great Yiddish saying: If you and all your neighbors lay all of your problems on your respective front lawns, you’d look them all over, and end up taking back your own.

With our lives becoming increasingly more interconnected via search engines, Skype and social media, suddenly our neighbors are not just the ones three houses down; they’re in Egypt, Mexico and India. Some of the problems out on the front lawns of these teens might include:

• Lack of basic plumbing or clean water

• Limited access to education and resources

• Environmental threats

Would you take back your own problems now, even if they’re heavier than a crush not knowing your name? Are these just the problems our neighbors are “supposed” to have? Thousands of teens around the world think not and taken action already, proving their generation is capable of making significant change in the world. And they’ve had the time of their lives in the process.