Experience. Responsibility. Safety. Expertise.
"En Loco Parentis," it's the central legal premise of global education systems - teachers are highly trained professionals qualified to fill the legal obligations of parents for extended stretches of time. As elite educators, nothing is more central to the work we do than the physical, emotional, and intellectual growth and wellbeing of the young people with whom we work. Our unique structure and qualifications ensure that we are better positioned than anyone in the industry to meet the responsibility of caring for the young people with whose wellbeing we are entrusted.
Educators maintain extensive child protection track records and certifications that go far beyond the trainings offered by corporate student travel operators. All of our guided travel opportunities are led by individuals who have completed CPR, first aid, and international child protection trainings from internationally accredited providers. Additionally, our team is made up of professionals who know and trust each other from close collaboration in the world's top educational institutions. Put simply, there is nobody out there more qualified to be entrusted with the safety and well being of young people than we are - whether guiding travel in person or planning independent, family, or group travel.
Health - A Proactive and Preventative Approach
In this era of intense focus on COVID exposure prevention, it is easy to forget that international travel has always involved medical risk assessments and employment of best practices. The list of diseases that are transmitted by food, water, insects, and, occasionally, through the air can be intimidating. One of the most important services we offer all of our clients is destination specific travel medicine guidance in line with the latest advice and surveillance from the CDC and WHO. We help our independent travelers learn the best protocols and obtain the best gear, and work to carefully implement best practice sanitation and disease prevention protocols on our guided travel opportunities - security owl not included.
Security through Experience, Expertise, and Research
Of course, safe travel isn't just about staying healthy, it's about knowing the destinations we travel to first hand, planning ahead, and coordinating with the best partners on the ground. The reason we can offer guided excursions to parts of the world that many mass student travel companies ignore is the strength and quality of our relationships with local teams formed over years of work on behalf of the world's top educational institutions facilitating educational travel. These relationships allow us to continuously update our itineraries and offerings to ensure a safe and engaging experience as we explore. We also coordinate with the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center and maintain cellular and satellite two way communication on all of our guided trips so that we can seamlessly get in touch with family members or medical personnel to ensure a rapid response to any medical situation that might develop. Safety on the road is all about planning for every eventuality, and we are ready to do that planning for you on our guided travel experiences, or walk you through every step as you plan your independent, family, or institutional travel.
COVID - Lessons Learned Through Multiple Educational Models
One would be hard-pressed to find a community more experienced in successfully adapting to COVID-19 while balancing students' social, emotional, and academic needs than our international teaching community. With direct experience safely delivering every model of distance, blended, and in person instruction, we are uniquely positioned to deliver safe, effective experiential learning opportunities through student travel without sacrificing student learning or outcomes.
Safety and Flexibility in Numbers
Our experience in the field of educational travel and service learning has taught us many lessons regarding the value of flexibility and the importance of being able to embrace chance opportunities for learning and engagement that arise on the road. The following are situations that came up on a recent excursion over the course of just three days on the road:
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Gender segregated entrances to religious sites separate our group.
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A local woman wants to invite the group to dinner in her home, but can only host five people at a time.
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A traveler has to deal with a family emergency and needs a chaperone to help them as they navigate that.
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In a big city the group can't agree on what they want to do with their day, and decides to split up into four smaller groups.
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The most dramatic of all, there is dissent over what should be had for dinner, and the solution is for our cohort to visit two separate restaurants.
There are innumerable reasons for our industry leading policy of having one background checked, CPR and first aid certified, child protection trained professional educator for every four young people traveling with us, not including local guides and ground staff. It's about safety. It's about the freedom to dive in and embrace the destination without being chained to a a large group. And it's about the flexibility to deal with the unexpected challenges and take advantage of unexpected opportunities that make travel so special.​
We are extremely proud of the space we've created in the educational travel world! Let us show you why:
Our elite team of experienced educators and adventurers allows us to offer guided and independent travel opportunities with uniquely verifiable value, while meeting the highest standards for sustainability and safety. Wherever it is you want to explore in this world, we can help you get there, engage, and grow.
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