Three months off from school and endless sunshine provides students with an abundance of ways to spend their time. While many students enjoy lounging on their couches, traveling with their family, or working a summer shift, a few students choose to embark on life-changing adventures independently. These students choose to participate in a summer travel program, among the many available for high school students.

Students looking to participate in an enriching and unique experience have an overwhelming amount of options for summer travel programs. These programs accommodate a wide variety of interests, flexible dates, and destinations in every corner of the globe.

Last summer, Charlotte Howie, a sophomore at AHS, traveled to Fiji with a program called Rustic Pathways. This specific travel program has courses in many different locations, ranging from Central America, Africa, and Australia. Each course also includes a distinct focus: service, adventure, language study or critical social issues. Howie opted for a program focussed on the adventure aspect, “Big Fiji Explorer.” While in Fiji, she enjoyed making new friends, hiking, exploring the island and swimming. She also had the opportunity to go skydiving!

“I would highly recommend this program to students at AHS because it was really fun and it was a different kind of experience that you can’t get in Colorado or traveling with your family. My favorite part was probably traveling to Cloudbreak [a popular surfing region], and we got to eat at a floating restaurant. I think I really grew over the course of this trip by learning how to accept the challenges that were thrown at me,” Howie said.

Another AHS sophomore, Nellie Tash, had a unique experience at the Centre International d’Antibes. Last summer she traveled to Antibes, France for a three-week French intensive course. Here she lived in a city apartment and attended French classes for about 4 hours a day. In the afternoon she would participate in many different activities, such as sailing or shopping in the city.  

“It was intimidating in the beginning because everyone was trying to make friends, but [my advice would be to] just be friendly and talk to the people in your classes, and then it’s really easy to make friends that way. I enjoyed learning how to travel internationally by myself and figuring out little stuff, like learning how to use the transportation systems,” Tash said.

Many students also choose to participate in one of these programs with a friend. A couple of summers ago AHS senior Dylan Degraff and junior Sam Kahn, Skier Scribbler news editor, traveled around Spain with a program called West Coast Connections.

“Yeah, I was really glad I went with Sam. We were with 60 other kids, I knew a couple of them, but they were mostly from LA and New York, so it was nice to be with Sam,” Degraff said.

This particular program found a way to incorporate learning, flexibility, and adventure into one trip.

“In the morning we would have classes, so Sam was in Spanish class, and I took a photography class, and in the afternoons we had free time to go explore the cities, and we were in a foreign country, so we were just trying to take it all in,” Degraff said.

Other options for high school study abroad or summer travel programs include the following:

Where There Be Dragons- https://www.wheretherebedragons.com/

Bold Earth-  https://boldearth.com/

Global Leadership Adventures- https://www.experiencegla.com/

National Geographic Student Expeditions- https://ngstudentexpeditions.com/

Outward Bound- https://www.outwardbound.org/