Parents call me all the time asking about GLA, but often it emerges that they don’t even know how to think about choosing a summer program. They’re bombarded by a ton of catalogs and often just select whichever organization has the prettiest catalog. Obviously, this is not the best way to figure out where to send your teenage son or daughter.
Our calls usually turn into sessions where I help parents construct a mental framework to think about all the summer program options available. Here are some of the key questions to ask:
1. Honestly (really, honestly) how emotionally mature and globally minded is your child? This can help you answer whether they are even ready for an international program. If you’re not sure if they’re ready, then maybe start with a 1 week program in Latin America. If they have already traveled extensively with school or family, then let them go further out.
2. What is the objective of doing the summer program? Is it purely for fun? Is it to foster personal development? Is it to earn some needed community service hours? Is it to explore a personal passion about a certain part of the world? Its amazing how many families haven’t asked themselves what they hope to get out of the program. Start with the general goal and then work backwards.
3. What kind of peer group do you want your child to be surrounded by? Is it an all-American group? Do all the students come from the same part of the USA? Is the student body diverse? If so, in which way?
Global Leadership Adventures prides itself on trying to recruit an international student body. Although the majority of students still come from the USA and UK, we have students from throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America. For some families, this is not what they want. For others, getting their son or daughter to be part of an international student body is a unique benefit.
I realize now that there are a lot more things to consider when choosing a teen volunteer abroad program. I will continue this thread in a separate post.
We’re extremely excited about our program UK: Organic England – this 10-day experience focuses on the organic food and sustainable agriculture. More and more people are becoming conscious of the issues surrounding the way our food is produced and transported. This program explores those issues through thought-provoking and tasty visits to places in London as well as through hands-on volunteer work at an organic farm in Wales.
The first few days take place in London where we’ll meet with people involved in the Slow Food UK movement, check out the sites in London, and visit organic farmers markets. One highlight will be visiting Jamie Oliver‘s award-winning restaurant Fifteen (he recently won the TED Award for his work on food issues). This high-class London restaurant combines top-notch cuisine and is also a training center for disadvantaged youth to learn a skill. We’ll tour Fifteen, learn about its work and also receive a cooking class from one of the staff members.
We’ll then spend five days in rural Wales volunteering on an organic farm. We’ll be on the Trebberfed Farm helping feed animals, harvest produce, erect fences, and weed crops – all while learning first hand about organic agriculture and sustainable food production. In the afternoons, we’ll visit gold mines, historic castles and even spend time on the Cardigan Coast.
Terra Intern Abroad is a new program from Terra Education (the parent organization of Global Leadership Adventures) that many alumni have been waiting for!This is a program for college students and young professionals who want to intern with non-profits and sustainable businesses in these countries:
·Argentina
·China
·Costa Rica
·Ecuador
·Guatemala
·India
·Spain
·Tanzania
Opportunities vary greatly from alternative energy to poverty alleviation, to athletics.Students can also work with their current institutions to get academic credit for their internship abroad.
Terra Intern Abroad will give you hands on experience in your field of choice, cultural learning and adventure, and possibly most importantly, networking contacts in the country of your choice for future job endeavors!
It drove home the point that in spite of a tough economy, many of us (myself included) value experiences over stuff. I purposely drive a very modest economy car instead of a luxury car, live in a modest house versus an extravagent mc mansion — all with the thinking that I don’t want to be saddled down with stuff.
As a parent, I’ve made it a priority to expose my children to the world. International travel is not cheap, and taking a wife and kids makes it even more expensive. But I believe it brings me and my family so much value that the monetary expense is worthwhile.
We just formed a new Facebook group called Fund for Global Education. We are a group dedicated to learning about and embracing other cultures. The goal of this group is to raise awareness and money for The Fund for Global Education to sponsor children who could not otherwise afford to go on an international program, such as Global Leadership Adventure.
Hopefully, with the help and generosity of the group’s members, we can sponsor deserving students on the trip of a lifetime! By donating to this cause you will be helping to inspire the next generation of global leaders.
Interestingly, while many of our students are excited about the idea of spending their summer vacation doing community service, many of their parents seemed perplexed by this concept. It seems that among some adults there just isn’t the understanding that volunteering abroad is a great way to connect directly with the local people in a country. However, this seems to be changing as adult “volunteer vacations” seem to be gaining in popularity. Here’s an article from the CBS Early Show about Volun-Tourism.
We were excited to see that Global Leadership Adventures was mentioned in this New York Times article.
As the article mentioned, many students are fundraising to pay the tuition or working extra jobs. We have seen an increase in the number of students who have been able to do fundraising to pay their entire program fee. In addition, we have increased the amount of financial aid that we award. We have given out a record amount of financial aid this year!
We hope that this economic recession will herald in a new era of students working to raise money for their tuition and an increase in the number of organizations who follow our lead in expanding scholarship and financial aid opportunities.
Although the economy may be tanking, there’s never been a more crucial time in history to be a global citizen.
I really liked this video that captures the spirit of entrepreneurship. In fact, this captures the very reason I believe in Global Leadership Adventures — the message of entrepreneurship empowers young people to know they can change the world. Whether its in business, or more related to the mission of GLA, as social entrepreneurs creating innovative solutions to global issues – never forget that your vision is acheivable.
In fact, on all of our programs we try to expose students to cutting edge social entrepreneurs. Whether its an organization in Brazil that teaches street kids hip hop dance or a rural women’s microfinance group in India – our students see first hand grassroots leaders innovating to address social issues.
We are currently in the peak season for summer programs. Traffic on www.experienceGLA.com is at an all time high, our phones are ringing off the hook, and programs are filling up.
So, this is also the most good time to study student interest. One interesting observation is that more web site visitors click on our Latin American programs than any other program offering. However, of the students who actually apply to our programs, the Africa programs have the highest enrollment. Latin America is in second place, Asia in third.
This might mean that while Latin America is generally a more popular region for students, the students who actually join Global Leadership Adventures tend to skew slightly more towards Africa. Does that mean they’re more adventurous? We’ll soon find out once our programs begin in a few months!
I co-founded Global Leadership Adventures in 2004 to help address what I saw as a pressing need for the world: a need for a new generation of leaders that is able to tackle the challenges of the increasingly inter-connected world we live in.
The greatest challenges over the next few decades are problems that can only be solved through global cooperation. Think about it: climate change, the energy crisis, poverty, HIV/AIDS, and terrorism are challenges that cannot be solved without engaging actors from various corners of the world in the solution. I realized that there was an urgent need to develop a new breed of leader that has deep personal connections to peers across the world, and that has had first-hand experience of global issues such as poverty, climate change, HIV/AIDs.
This is what inspired me to launch GLA – a vehicle for developing these leaders who will lead the world into the 21st century.
