WHY COLLEGE-BOUND TEENS SHOULD TRAVEL TO EUROPE BEFORE COLLEGE

I want to start by asking you four questions:

• Do you hope that your child is able to freely travel the world in the future?
• If there was one place you wished you hadn’t waited so long to visit, where would it be?
• Do you want your teen to experience other cultures before they start their freshman year of college?
• Have you always wished you were given the opportunity to explore the wonders of Europe at a young age?

We know there is a small window in time for us parents to help make such dreams a reality, in order to set our teens up with successful, foundational experiences. Not just lightweight tours of another place or yet another tutoring session, but experiences that will shape them as people before they take that big leap to college.

Visiting Europe as an American teenager without your parents can be a life-changing, eye-opening event for them, orders of magnitude more impactful than any standard college prep can muster.

If you remember your first time traveling abroad on your own, you probably wish you had done it sooner, realizing it’s not as hard as it seemed in the planning stage. And Europe is an excellent starting point for those first stepping outside their hometown bubble.

Sure, we know there are many logistical tasks to cross off our list in order to make an experience like this happen.

Organizing a trip to Europe can contain many logistical puzzle pieces, such as navigating long journeys, obtaining new phone plans and booking many differing accommodations.

We also know the benefits are VAST; studies have proven that travel increases empathy, cultural understanding, education and independence, all attributes we want our teens to possess, especially before heading out to college.

Of course, as parents safety is always top of mind, and navigating a journey to such a destination can feel overwhelming.

That is where Global Leadership Adventures comes in.

We have been successfully running programs for years and have had the pleasure of providing our students with incredible experiences exploring countries steeped in history, art and cultural inspiration along the way.

Furthermore, Europe tends to hit the sweet spot for a lot of parents considering sending their teen abroad for a short-term trip without them: it’s fundamentally a different place with different cultures than in the United States, but it’s also familiar in many ways to life here in the states.

For decades, Europe has been the #1 destination for educational excursions for this reason, and also due to reliable and well-established public transportation as well as the vast array of cultures only short distances from one another.

With GLA, teens have the opportunity to move through awe-inspiring places, staying in wonderful accommodations, tasting incredible cultural dishes and learning about life from those living in the historical towns, cities and villages we visit.

• In Greece, dive deep into Greek mythology through site visits, guest speakers, and local lore
• Hone your Spanish language skills in Spain’s historic city of Toledo
• Explore Europe in different cities and destinations across the continent on our multi-country programs

If Europe has always been a destination you want to gift your teen with, it’s not too late to set them up with a safe, inspiring European adventure this summer – give us a call to learn more at 858-771-0645 or explore our Europe programs on our website in more detail here.

Hannah Shepherd
Staff Writer
Global Leadership Adventures