The Young Leader

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3 Major Reasons to Send Your Teen Abroad

In a world where our youth are constantly competing against one another to be the “best and brightest,” it is increasingly important to consider ways to enhance our child’s résumé, and therefore their future opportunities.

As parents, we want our children to be well-rounded and cultured, but not while sacrificing their education and overbooking them during the school year. This is where summer opportunities come into play.

We’re bombarded with options, ranging from summer camps in the Rockies to leadership forums at prestigious universities. Sports camps, backpacking treks…if you can name it, someone is offering it. With an increasing focus on volunteer work during the college admissions and job-seeking processes, programs that allow students to give back, while also developing in other areas, are the top choices.

Global Leadership Adventures offers summer programs for teens that provide a gateway to knowledge, exploration and service for your teenager, all while expanding and enriching their understanding of the world around them. GLA programs are all held in developing countries, where students can play an active role in assisting a community in need, and they can also immerse themselves in cultures far different from their own. These programs impact students on many levels, and while the experience abroad is an eye-opening one, students also form close-knit bonds with peers and mentors, which is important in creating a broad network and support system.

Take a look at 3 reasons to make a volunteer program abroad a priority for your child this summer.

Heightened Appreciation

When teenagers return from nearly a month living independently in a foreign country, the first thing many parents notice is their renewed appreciation for the lives they lead and the opportunities they are given.  As Grey Gondella, whose daughter visited Ghana in 2012, put it, “She returned much more confident and ready to try new things, and had matured a lot in a small space of time. My expectations were exceeded. This went much farther than merely “seeing” another culture. She was as fully immersed as possible.” Experiencing such drastically different ways of life allows students to gain a better understanding of their own opportunities, and to reflect back on the cultural borders they crossed on their summer adventure.

Transformative Experience

Experiencing what life is like in communities other than our own doesn’t only teach our children to view their own lives in a different way, but it also gives our students an opportunity to form, and learn from, a travelling community of their own! Our teenage groups form inseparable bonds with others from all over the country, working together to enact positive change in their new surroundings and having tons of fun along the way! There is no better chance to combine education, personal development and to instill a personal sense of adventure in your child than through an opportunity to travel abroad as a teenager. It is an experience they will draw from and reflect back on for the rest of their lives, and although it can be scary to imagine sending your child to another country without you, it is a life lesson they’ll appreciate even more as they mature.

Meaningful Involvement

International volunteer trips don’t only impact your child on a personal level. Across the globe, students and their families are looking for ways to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive educational environment, and travel experience is one area of student résumés that college admissions officers take into consideration. “What we care about is that students have done something that means something to them,” said Richard Shaw, Stanford’s dean of undergraduate admission. Additionally, Shaw added that going on a “three-to-five day experience to see what poverty looks like, as a sort of mea culpa for never having been involved in social or community issues should be avoided.”  GLA’s globally-minded students stand out against other prospective college candidates due to their month-long commitment, their full and independent immersion in the local culture, and their work on a significant service project in the community.

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How Volunteering Can Help You Choose a College Major

As you get closer to high school graduation, you may already be imagining what life will be like in college. Aside from the parties and socializing, you’ll imagine your classes and workload — possibly even your life beyond school. The bridge that will lead you to your career is education, and the choice of the right major is an imperative step in realizing that goal.

Much like any important decision, you can’t make a wise choice based on a single factor. A variety of different components all shape a good decision, and when it comes to choosing a major, doing some volunteer work can help you learn which education path is correct.

Choosing your focus: The influence and experience of volunteering

Volunteering is a way of being able to help a community in need and make a difference in people’s lives. Not every student applying for college chooses to get involved, so being a volunteer distinguishes you as someone committed to having a positive impact on the lives of others. Here we’ll look at some specific examples of how volunteering can help narrow down your major and get you ready for college:

  • Skills development: You can easily gain some benefits from volunteer work, ranging from acquiring specific skills to developing a sense of accomplishment. Colleges are increasingly looking favorably on volunteer experience, because it shows that the applicant cares about more than just herself. It can also be an eye-opening endeavor that gives you greater awareness of other communities. A GLA volunteer abroad program for high school students is not only an exciting way to see some beautiful parts of the world, such as Africa, Southeast Asia or the Caribbean, but it can help you gain leadership skills and aptitudes you never considered.

  • Job shadowing: Through volunteering, you can get an idea of what a particular job is really like and what you should do to prepare for a career in that field. You can get a good feel for what it will entail and a clearer understanding of how well you’d fit. It’s essentially a form of job shadowing that can give you some great hands-on experience.

  • Rethinking that original idea: Volunteering can also serve as a great way of understanding what you don’t want to do. By getting up close to a job, you can get an idea of what you aren’t going to enjoy. If you volunteer as a teacher, you may learn which subjects you gravitate towards or the ages of the students you’d like to teach. If all along you planned to be a social worker or a doctor, volunteering can help you learn if that original idea is a good fit after all.

  • A lesson in problem solving: You won’t find a class in your course catalog on problem solving, but volunteering will help fill that gap. This skill will help you both as a student and as a person in general. Volunteering is an excellent way to develop some problem solving skills, because it forces you to think on your feet, interact with people in spontaneous ways, make priorities and communicate with people from other cultures.

Deciding on a college major is a huge choice that isn’t purely an academic decision. Personal values, interests, aptitudes and ambition all play a part in your decision on a practical course of study. Volunteering can play a part in this decision, taking you out of your comfort zone, increasing your awareness and helping you narrow down your choice of academic specialty.

Additionally, it’s important to think about a major as not just being a stepping stone to a career, but one that will inform your development as a person; volunteering can have the same impact. When you apply to college, you can be proud of the volunteering work that you’ve done and know that you’ve given yourself an effective means of choosing your field of study for your college career.

 

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Nearly 75% of Teenagers Plan To Volunteer this Summer

Willing to Serve: The Millennial Generation & Volunteering

Each generation seems to deal with the stereotype of being unproductive, entitled and self-centered. The so-called slacker generation of the 1990s went through this, and the trend dates back at least to the Lost Generation of the 1920s. Today it’s the millennials in this situation, yet despite an unflattering portrait, evidence is showing that, like any stereotype, it doesn’t always hold up.

Refuting the bad rap

Many young people are more socially conscious than recent headlines give them credit for and are refuting the myths about them by getting actively involved in local volunteer efforts. In 2010, the Pew Research Center found that over half of all millennials participated in volunteering efforts in the previous year, proving that they’re willing to devote their time to supporting causes they believe in. According to the New York Times’ Catherine Rampell, in 2011 “community service among young people has exploded.”

In a poll conducted for the 2012 Millenial Impact Report, 75 percent of the Y generation donated money, and 63 percent participated in volunteer work. The 2013 report specifies that this same statistic has grown, with 83 percent saying that they made a donation in the last year. In looking at current data, 75 percent of high school bloggers plan to volunteer this summer, and at least one blogger has pointed out that the majority of people on LinkedIn who have “Volunteer & Causes” as part of their profile are millennials.

Landing that first big job

With the job market rebounding, it’s still tough for recent graduates; so many young people are learning to find new ways to distinguish their resumes from the rest of the crowd. Companies tend to prefer college graduates with some volunteer experience, so millennials have discovered that devoting some time to a cause they believe in is a great way to get themselves noticed by potential employers. It’s also a means for gaining some direct experience, developing necessary skills and building character by stepping outside one’s comfort zone.

Global awareness leading to global activities

As digital communication helps pull people together, people of all ages are becoming more globally aware and starting to understand how their decisions and actions have an impact on other societies. Websites and social media are providing ways to learn about nonprofits and volunteer organizations that provide information on helping people in need around the world.

This kind of awareness motivates millennials to get involved in helping people in underprivileged communities both at home and abroad. Young people who’ve already had some volunteer experience are taking on new challenges by getting involved in high school volunteer abroad programs outside of the U.S. These volunteers are helping at clinics, schools and conservation centers, in efforts that improve sustainability, alleviate poverty and support local education.

Making a change through volunteering

Many like to make comparisons one generation and another as to who’s the most philanthropic or socially conscious. What’s clear is that within each generation there will be many interested in making a positive change who are committed enough to make a difference. In the years to come, community service may receive a great boost from the millennial generation, as young people continue to be involved in volunteer efforts both at home and overseas, and prove that the stereotype about them doesn’t hold up.

 

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Time to Start Planning for GLA’s Summer Service Trips!

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

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5 Tips for Choosing the Best Summer Program

High school students only have a few precious summers before they plunge into college life.  So, how do you take full advantage of this valuable window of time?  Here are five tips for choosing a summer program:

Tip 1: Consider what areas you want to further develop
Whether you are a student looking for a program for yourself or a parent looking for your son or daughter, it’s important to think deeply about what areas of your life you want to further develop.

Do you want to build a portfolio of international experience? Whether you are passionate about the environment, love animals, helping children, sports or want to study health care, there are a range of international community service programs that allow you to gain hands-on experience abroad.

Start by analyzing the outcome you want, and then work backwards to find the program that will help you reach that goal.

Tip 2: Look for more than just tours or trips – seek additional value.
While teen tours or adventure travel may be fun, there are many programs, like Global Leadership Adventures, that combine exciting international travel with valuable hands-on leadership development.

Not only will you have fun and see a new country (as you would on any old trip), but because of the community service and leadership components, the trips are more impactful, memorable and often bond new friends together for life.

Tip 3: Investigate safety protocols
Every program will tell you their programs are safe – but don’t settle for a simple answer.  Probe this deeply.  After all, your (or your son or daughter’s) life will be in that program’s hands.  Look for a coherent, comprehensive and specific set of safety protocols that discuss lodging, staffing, transportation, healthy meals.  Check out GLA’s Five Point Safety System as an example.

Tip 4: Be sure you know who is in charge.
The people running your program are the ones who will most directly impact your experience.  While most programs will display a roster of program staff with impressive sounding credentials, think about from a broader perspective:  Are the staff members just American? Or are they from the destination country?  Or is it a mix of both?

While it’s great to have American teachers who have experience working with high school students, they might not necessarily know the ins and outs of a certain country.  This is where local expertise is essential.  Local people who know the territory can provide a safer experience and access to people and places that foreigners don’t know about. Our expert staff is comprised of local people and American educators.

Tip 5: Talk to people who have done the program.
It sounds obvious, but many people still do not check references.  The best way to get unvarnished, first-hand accounts of what a program is actually like is to talk to past participants.  Be sure to make a list of probing questions before in order to gather meaningful information.  Be specific and ask questions like, “What was the worst part of the program?” or “Describe exactly where students lived during the program”, or “How did this compare to other programs you have participated on in the past?”.  To speak to GLA references, just contact us and we’ll gladly send you a list of past participants.

That’s it for now.

While all these things might seem like a lot to think about, remember that your summer program is an investment, just like any other major purchase.  Take your time and do your homework and you’ll increase your chances of having a life-changing experience instead of just another vacation.

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