Mission Statement:
Our mission is to provide youth across all socio-economic, racial, national, and cultural backgrounds with a dynamic educational experience in the Americas. Participants will be part of an academic acceleration program that will prepare them for higher education. Every youth will become an integral part of a community of learners focusing on increased global awareness through community service, literacy, language immersion, and cross-cultural activities. We strongly believe that an educational travel experience has the power to change lives and increase academic success and resiliency, broadening horizons and transforming youth into community leaders.
Philosophy:
All children can learn, be it in their own way and at their own pace. They do want exposure to the world and to better know their place in it, so they can be agents of change and create social capital for themselves and their communities. Young people like old people want meaningful dialogue full of challenging questions and respectful discussion. They will read if the story is compelling and fits within a framework of knowledge weaving together the different academic traditions into a relevant whole. A kind of education that respects the individual, attempting to cross boundaries and expand horizons is integral to the growth of any individual.
The education system as it stands does not meet the intellectual, emotional or social needs of the majority of young people attending traditional schools. Nor by a long shot does the system nurture, inspire and encourage innovative educators who seek non-traditional means to reach young people and make meaningful connections to the world. Segregated communities, urban political bureaucracies, and a fear of breaking from the pack keep the pecking order of American education in place and the Achievement Gap a seemingly permanent scar on the nation’s social landscape. Being in the classroom we know what works for young people and how to make learning, engaging, rigorous and accessible to students from all backgrounds and skill levels. The answer is relationships that value the perspective and knowledge students and educators bring to the classroom and to go beyond traditional boundaries. The solution is an education without borders.
Educational travel is experiential learning. Experiences that challenge us and engage all our senses create a context in which statistics and facts become relevant and accessible to youth. Learning is not just textual, but rich in interpersonal relationships, faces, tastes, smells and landscapes that bring the written word to life. While large ideas like global warming and economic interdependence tangle the minds of our youth, appreciating preserved rainforests, walking along the halls of the United Nations, building infrastructure in rural communities and planting organic seeds of hope stir ideas and awaken compassion capable of forming responsible world citizens. The world is not just a photograph anymore. These experiences create a foundation for a sophisticated interpretation of the arts and sciences that traditional schooling only scratches the surface of. It has the power to open young people to avenues of thinking about themselves, their community and the global interdependence that sustains our world. Through explorations of ecology, community service, language immersion, academic acceleration, cross-cultural dialogue, personal development and sustainable relationships young people will become more dynamic individuals ready to participate in the world around them.
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