Global Leadership Adventures
Life-changing Travel Experiences for Teens, Inspired by the Peace Corps
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Travel to Africa, Asia, Latin America or Europe
GLA combines meaningful community service projects with cultural immersion and adventure to give teens the chance to build real-world leadership skills and have an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
- Participate in a range of experiences, from community service and immersive learning, to exploratory travel and adventure
- Travel overseas to Africa, Asia, Latin America or Europe and make friends with like-minded teens
- Write about your GLA experience in college applications or essays
- Choose spring break or summer program dates; sessions run 8-21 days
- Earn between 5-80 community service hours while on-program
Get a Free Program Catalog
Receive our FREE, full-color catalog complete with program details and photos of incredible GLA destinations from around the world.
Tuition is all-inclusive
Need-based and grant-based financial aid are available
Tuition for a GLA program includes all in-country expenses, including:
- > Lodging and 3 meals per day
- > In-country transportation and airport pick-up
- > Full-time staff and experts from the US/Europe
- > Travel medical insurance
- > Community service project materials and support
- > Cultural activities and adventure excursions
- > Educational materials and lectures
- > Pre-departure materials
- > 24/7 parent helpline and full-service travel support
Choose your own adventure
Summer and spring break session dates are available
Students who enroll in a Global Leadership Adventures program can:
Make a meaningful impact: GLA is a recognized leader in international volunteering and community service programs for teens
Choose from incredible destinations around the world: Africa, Asia & the Pacific, Central America, Europe, South America, The Caribbean
Find a program type that matches your interests: Public Health & Medicine, Animal & Wildlife Conservation, Children & Education, Language Immersion, Sports Leadership, Ocean & Climate Action, Photography & Journalism, Community Development & Children, Country Discovery, Special Themed Multi-Country, Building From Start to Finish
Sara, Age 16
Global Leadership Adventures Student Volunteer
On making a meaningful, sustainable difference in the world
At GLA, we believe leaders are made, not born: leadership is a life skill than can, and should, be developed. Leadership is woven throughout all elements of the program.
Community service is the vehicle through which students are exposed to a culture unlike their own. When GLA students arrive, our local teams and host communities welcome their energy and additional helping hands.
As students become embedded in a greater plan for change, global issues that were once remote become tangible, and distant concepts turn into people with faces, names and stories. Working side by side with our partners, students become engaged in understanding how the labor they provide accelerates critical, community-led initiatives. Many of our alumni leave our programs valuing the time they spent on service sites most.
Global Leadership Adventures was founded by Andrew Motiwalla, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and Fred Swaniker, who is also the visionary behind the world-renowned African Leadership Academy and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2019.
Since the the Peace Corps is not open to high school students, GLA was born to allow teens the opportunity to make a meaningful, sustainable difference abroad during a shorter length of stay. Our leadership model combines elements of the Peace Corps with the best of today’s service-learning methodology to make for a life-changing experience abroad.
In fact, many members of our program staff are Peace Corps veterans who want to share their experiences and inspire young leaders like you to help make a difference.
97% of GLA alumni say they consider their experience to have been life-changing.
Many GLA students have gone on to study at top universities such as Harvard and Stanford, start their own nonprofit organizations or find relevant academic opportunities and career paths inspired by their time overseas with GLA. A number of our alumni even return to visit the same communities they experienced while on a GLA program back in high school.
All of this happened because their experience abroad made such an impact on their lives. Traveling somewhere so different than your day-to-day surroundings can be exceptionally transformational, moving and inspiring for young people during their formative high school years.
