Hiking is both a healthy and an educational pastime, so we recommend hikes all year round—not just on Take a Hike Day. Below, we’ve provided some of our favorite hikes: on mountains, sidewalks, and even below sea-level! Bonus: there’s a WorldStrides tour that visits each one of them. Denali St... Read More

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes to deliver a one-of-a-kind educational trip for students and teachers across the country? Read on to learn how we prepared for our first trip since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In early October, Program Leader Sonny G. and a group of 14 adults se... Read More

My favorite place in Washington D.C. is Arlington National Cemetery. I have led groups of middle school students and their parents to Washington twice and I always look forward to going to Arlington. I am getting ready for my third trip this coming summer. I always plan on spending at least three ho... Read More

For many students on our Washington D.C trips, visiting Arlington National Cemetery, and witnessing a wreath-laying ceremony, can be a moving moment. One Program Leader wanted to ensure that her students understood the importance of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and what it symbolized. Prior to he... Read More

This is a modified version of a post sponsored by WorldStrides, first published on CarrieMarieisMe.com. Both of my sons had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York with their classmates in 8th grade with WorldStrides. We live in California, so this trip is a big deal.... Read More

This summer I had an incredibly unique opportunity—a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As a member of the 2019 Albert H. Small Normandy Institute, I was given the chance to gain an exceptionally complete understanding of the Normandy invasion during World War II as well as visit the Normandy countrys... Read More

In June of 2019, I had the fortunate opportunity to travel to China with several students and educational colleagues. As a vice principal, I cherish my time spent out of the office and learning right alongside our students. While in China, we rode rickshaws around a traditional Beijing village, did ... Read More

Sure, a lot is written about “bucket lists” and “doing it for the ‘Gram,” but students and their teachers today want far more than a checkmark and a photo from their international travel program. Seeing the sites is great, but experiencing a new culture is what makes tr... Read More

In planning programs, we see examples of excellent teamwork every single day, but it’s not every day the team is a couple of married teachers. Jason and Ricci Huber teach in two different Midwest high schools. He is passionate about Engineering, and she loves Business. Jason and Ricci wanted to cr... Read More

You might say Ethan Wilkinson, a high school student from Michigan, approached fundraising for his upcoming trip to Costa Rica like a real professional – he created his own small business! He started a lawn care company from scratch. “My Mom helped me make postcards about my lawn mowing service... Read More

After my trip this summer to France, England, and Berlin, here are my three “must-dos” while in France. You must eat a croissant. My friends and I ate TONS of croissants! They were so delicious when warm, and freshly baked (and sometimes chocolate on the inside). You don’t even need to sit dow... Read More

For decades, I did my best to teach students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties as they struggled in a traditional academic setting. But the barriers they faced in a traditional school setting were often too much to overcome. Year after year, students came into my first-grade classroom fa... Read More

On a warm evening last June, I witnessed a remarkable interaction that impacted me both personally and professionally.  At the Juneteenth celebration at the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston, I watched a dancer delicately lift her arm in the air as she gracefully spun her wheelchair back and forth... Read More

WorldStrides tour directors are an essential part of what makes our programs authentic, educational and fun. Part guide, part tour manager, part instructor of Learning through Exploration and Active Participation (LEAP) activities on our international programs, tour directors are the “boots on... Read More

We admire every teacher who takes on the (super fun and rewarding) job of leading student travel programs. But Randy Martin gets our admiration not once, not twice, but THRICE! This eighth-grade social studies teacher led three trips this year. What began ten years ago as a single trip to Washington... Read More

As far as I can tell, there are plenty of things in the world you have to see to believe or understand. Before my recent hop, skip, and a jump over the Atlantic Ocean, I knew that, but my international travel experience pushed me to see and understand things I didn’t even expect! First, a [&hellip... Read More

Mila attended our The Cambridge Tradition program in 2013 through Oxbridge Academic Programs, a division of WorldStrides, and then returned to Oxbridge again at L’Académie de Paris in 2014. While there, she majored in “History’s Secrets” and French Literature, respectively, with minors in E... Read More

For eighth grader Curtis Blackmon, his recent WorldStrides trip to D.C. wasn’t just an opportunity to visit the nation’s most important sites with his classmates. It was also a chance to visit a site that is central to his family – the final resting place of his father, Major Franklin Blackmon... Read More

Teaching music is, of course, about inspiring a love of music and an appreciation for a diverse art form. But it is also about helping students to look at things from different perspectives, to think about ideas as they have been constructed through someone else’s ear or someone else’s language.... Read More

Introducing The Sharing Hub, an Australian company and WorldStrides academic host that works with our Global Academic Team to meet with students and impart what they do with emerging leaders in various fields. The Sharing Hub’s field of expertise is the sharing economy – something you are probab... Read More

We like to think of ourselves as a traveling family. My kids have been all over the United States, from East to West and North to South. Before enrolling in French in high school, my daughter Kaitlyn, didn’t really speak on international travel. It took only one meeting with her French teacher to ... Read More

Like many of you, my heart broke to watch Notre Dame Cathedral burning this week. To see something that has stood so proudly, and with so much history and meaning, get eaten away so quickly is the kind of somber moment I wish we never had to see. The world watched and cried together. Those […... Read More

Love is in the air – and every once in a while, it is even part of a WorldStrides program! In 2000, Susan and Larry Garretson got married while in Scotland for our American High School Theater Festival program. We sat down with them to find out more about how they ended up eloping as […] Read More

November is Manatee Awareness Month, and WorldStrides’ relationships with various manatee-loving organizations allow travelers on our Florida programs to have the unique opportunity to dive deep into the manatee experience. Here are a few ways students how learn about these fascinating marine crea... Read More

WorldStrides Course Leader Gary McKechnie was so impressed by the middle school group from Rochester, Indiana he led last year that he sat down and wrote their mayor and city council members a letter. “I was amazed at how well they interacted with one another,” he recalls today. “No matter wha... Read More

Iceland is a beautiful and fascinating country, and lots of people go to see its waterfalls, volcanoes, and generally gorgeous scenery. When I went to Iceland, of course I wanted to go see all of the most popular sites. But one of the main reasons I went was also to see puffins. That’s why I [&hel... Read More

The seed for the idea of a trip to Kenya was planted more than 7 years ago for the 2018 University of Rochester YellowJackets, before any of the a cappella group’s current members were even in college. The 2011 YellowJackets had traveled there as part of a cultural exchange to collaborate on music... Read More

As summer began, most students were looking forward to a break from classes and the daily grind. For educator Amanda Neill and her 13 sophomores and juniors from Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, they were actively embracing a different kind of daily grind – a full week of globally-minded,... Read More

Her high school trip to Peru in Latin America was in 2007, but Abby Sawyer talks about it now like she’s telling a story from last month. She vividly recalls witnessing Macchu Picchu, tasting traditional Peruvian cuisine, and hunting for alligators in the Amazon. “I remember thinking, ‘Wh... Read More

On our first trip with WorldStrides in 2008, we had some free time on our last day in Paris, so my colleagues Kari, Maureen, and I spent the afternoon in a café, writing personal notes to all of the students on the trip. We told them about how proud we were of them, how much […] Read More

I must admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of the 8th grade trip I inherited when I started as a young teacher at our middle school. Our long-running trip to Washington D.C. is important to the students and parents, and I wondered how I was going to be able to accomplish […] Read More

Last Thursday dawned crisp and cold with a bright blue sky and the cherry blossom trees in near-full bloom. I was fortunate enough to be leading a tour group to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. This was a scheduled stop on their itinerary and although they had spent t... Read More

The American law school curriculum is designed to prepare students for practicing law in the United States, so it could be tempting for educators to focus entirely on the American system. But the practice of law is intricately bound to the realities of globalization, and the Duquesne University... Read More

Our Tour Directors agree with us—the best way to broaden students’ minds is to get them learning by doing. Elisabetta Amadi has been a Tour Director since 2005, and her favorite part of the job is showing students her Venice—the one she grew up in from childhood. Elisabetta spends much of her ... Read More

John Wise and Wombi Rose were already old friends when they were selected to go on the FIELD program to Vietnam in their first year at Harvard Business School. The 10-day experience, planned in partnership with WorldStrides, took them to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. It was the first time in Vietnam f... Read More

Meet Laura Mulligan Thomas. She’s the driving force behind her award-winning Charlottesville High School orchestra. She’s also a big believer in international travel. Thirty years ago, Laura was proud to count eight students in her fledgling music program. Last year, she took 140 eager student m... Read More

The travel experiences students have with WorldStrides shape their futures, and especially their careers! We chronicle some of these notable alumni in our Where Are They Now series. Jesse Varela knows a thing or two about stepping out of his comfort zone. As a high school senior, he took his first i... Read More

Amanda Bonville doesn’t hesitate to sign her children up for an educational travel experience. The mother of six has sent (or plans to send!) four of her children on WorldStrides programs. In fact, her oldest daughter, Abby, has traveled with us four times! Abby’s first trip was in 2013 to Was... Read More

Elizabeth Guyer is an Account Manager for our science programs. She recently traveled with 28 students from Colorado on their Waves and Waterfalls tour of Costa Rica where she witnessed one of the greatest benefits of travel – overcoming fears. Travel takes you out of your comfort zone. ... Read More

Kyle Washka traveled with WorldStrides OnStage with Denison University on an International Custom Tour of Iceland. While in Iceland, Kyle had the opportunity to perform at Harpa Hall, Skálholt Cathedral  and The Saga Centre in the Hvolsvollur. Inspired by his travels through Iceland, Kyle will ret... Read More

As a student, Jon Ortiz was chosen to perform at Carnegie Hall with WorldStrides’ Honors Performance Series. The experience affirmed for him that he was meant to pursue a career in music. Now a music teacher in Lubbock, Texas, Jon was recently chosen as a chaperone for the same Honors Performance ... Read More

As the official team sport of Maryland, the home of WorldStrides Excel, and the oldest sport in North America, lacrosse continues to expand its border limits. As a strong advocate for global sports ambassadorship, we work with teams looking to travel internationally and help develop the game abroad.... Read More

“Every student is a musician,” says David Wish, CEO and founder of Little Kids Rock, “we, as educators need to draw it out of our students rather than drumming it in.” Founded by a former elementary school teacher frustrated with the lack of funding for music education, Little Kids Rock was ... Read More

WorldStrides had a significant hand in presenting the National Anthem at the Men’s and Women’s Final Four over the weekend. Sky’s the Limit Productions, a division of WorldStrides OnStage, provided production assistance for the National Anthem ahead of the games. Our participation didn’t end... Read More

What better way to play your favorite sports than by taking an international tour to the tropics? Not very much. We are pleased to announce WorldStrides Excel Programs‘ new sports tours to beautifully warm destinations. Whether your team wants to play winter baseball in the Dominican Republic,... Read More

By Hayley Safley *This article originally appeared on The Odyssey.  On February 4, 2016, I embarked on an incredible music adventure with the High School Honors Performance Series. To make a total cliché, it absolutely was a bucket list, life-changing experience. Wonder why? I met incredi... Read More

*This post originally appeared on WorldStrides CBL’s Oxford and Cambridge Summer Academy. Written by one of our participants, it chronicles a typical day during one one of our programs. This morning started off great, I was shown a new place I can get decent coffee near college. Thank Goodness ... Read More

Nate P., a history teacher from Colorado, is no stranger to WorldStrides. He traveled with us to Washington, D.C., and Colonial Williamsburg as an eighth grader, and is now taking groups of students on the exact same experience. Nate’s middle school trip to our nation’s capital ultimately shap... Read More

The Washington Area Girls Soccer League is a youth soccer organization with 650 teams and 10,000 players throughout Washington D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Each year, a group of 18 players are chosen from teams in the division 1 or 2 level to create the WAGS All-Star team. This year, the t... Read More

On the 15th anniversary of the events of September 11, here is a story about an American hero who is still impacting the lives of many students (and teachers) each year. For Jason, a WorldStrides Program Leader from Michigan, a chance encounter at Arlington National Cemetery led to an incredible fr... Read More

It’s not all rehearsing and performing with American High School Theatre Festival and Festival Fringe! Groups also get to do some sightseeing outside of Edinburgh. This morning, coaches loaded up and headed to Stirling Castle and Trossachs National Park. Stirling Castle is one of the largest and m... Read More

One of our last groups took their show to the Royal Mile today. The cast of Little Shop of Horrors braved rain and cold winds to perform several numbers for their show, drawing quite the crowd in the process. When the rain started to fall before their time slot, they got creative and used ... Read More

It has been a day full of American High School Theatre Festival performances in Edinburgh! Many of our groups had their first performances today in our venues, while others performed on the Royal Mile. Students have also been taking in other performances from Festival Fringe and raving about some of... Read More

One of the best parts of American High School Theatre Festival is watching “it” come together – the hours of rehearsals, memorizing lines, learning music, planning lighting, the list goes on. Schools spend months raising funds for their AHSTF trip, in between rehearsing, studying, other extrac... Read More

Scottish weather… We’ve had it all today. We awoke to bright blue skies, only to have the clouds roll in. After a quick shower, the sun was back for a brief visit, only to replaced clouds and another short shower. The rain and clouds didn’t dampen spirits at American High School Theatre F... Read More

After a good night’s sleep, our first full day of the American High School Theatre Festival in Edinburgh has been one of tech rehearsals, sightseeing, and the first of three Ceilidhs. Today, a few groups took part in a walking tour of Edinburgh, led by our Blue Badge Guides. We met outside the Nat... Read More

Greetings from Edinburgh! American High School Theatre Festival 2016 is officially underway! This year’s groups have spent the last few days sightseeing around London, participating in a workshop at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and attending West End shows like Wicked and Kinky Boots. This ... Read More

WorldStrides Excel programs has launched a new sports tour package that allows women’s collegiate and girls’ youth lacrosse teams to travel to England for the 2017 FIL Women’s Lacrosse World Cup! The FIL Women’s Lacrosse World Cup is the premier event of the international lacrosse calendar, ... Read More

Angela Bacarisse, a professor of costume design and arts management at Stephen F. Austin State University, traveled with our International Collegiate Theatre Festival to Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland last year for an unforgettable experience with her students. For her, the chance to expose ... Read More

WorldStrides, the nation’s largest and most trusted educational travel provider is pleased to announce that Missouri Olympic Development Program (MO ODP)  is partnering with the company to deliver international soccer tours for their players through their WorldStrides Excel Sports programs. T... Read More

Since the ability to travel to Cuba opened up last year, it has become a popular destination, particularly for educational travel. Spanish teacher Chad Taylor recently took 13 high school students to Cuba where they were immersed in a culture and tradition very different from their own. While the st... Read More

The FC Edmonton “Eddies” recently returned home from a ten day pre-season tour in Scotland and England with WorldStrides Excel. The Eddies played friendly matches against local Scottish and English professional teams to help prepare them for their upcoming NASL season. FC Edmonton played four in... Read More

Linda Goertz is well-versed in WorldStrides’ Washington, D.C., programs. This spring, Goertz, a math teacher, will take her ninth trip with eighth grade students to our nation’s capital. Her students will arrive in Washington, D.C. with a deeper understanding of the men and women behind the monu... Read More

Every August, the arts descend upon Edinburgh, Scotland for Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. This year, Hope College’s Matthew Farmer will take a group of 16 dancers to Festival Fringe through our International Collegiate Theatre Festival (ICTF) program. Farmer serves as Ho... Read More

24 ODP and youth soccer coaches, technical directors, and directors of coaching from various clubs throughout Virginia traveled with WorldStrides Excel on a fully customized coaching educational tour to England and Scotland in February. The nine-day tour included visits to top academy teams includin... Read More

Dr. David Schwarzkopf is an Associate Professor of Accountancy at Bentley University. Dr. Schwarzkopf received his undergraduate degree in German from Harvard, an MPA focused  on business and government relations in science and technology from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and his Ph... Read More

The High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall took place February 4-8 in New York City. The Honors Performance Series challenges elite students to perform at their very best as they rehearse and perform under master conductors. They also have the opportunity to perform in front of invit... Read More

When it comes to student educational travel, teachers are our most valuable resource. It is the teachers who understand the impact of travel on their students’ lives, and the teacher who begins the process of planning a trip of a lifetime. At WorldStrides, we work hand-in-hand with our teachers to... Read More

This summer, Catholic University Men’s Soccer Team will travel with WorldStrides Excel Programs to Manchester, England and Stirling, Scotland. The team will tour some of Europe’s most famous soccer stadiums and experience a different type of competition not found in the United States. Head Coac... Read More

We can’t say that our brackets did well this year, or any year for that matter, but we did have reason to celebrate during this year’s NCAA Final Four thanks to Sky’s The Limit. If you aren’t already aware, at most of our bowl game events, some of our participants get to roll out a […... Read More

With the New Year quickly making way, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on an experience during one of our programs in Costa Rica from last summer as I look forward to another summer of extraordinary students and programs. Pineapple as far as the eye can see – we were riding along on […] Read More

The Holy Spirit Church (Heiliggeistkirche) in Heidelberg, Germany, is the most famous church in Heidelberg and has served both Catholics and Protestants. The current church was built in 1398, on a site that had housed two different, earlier churches. This church, located right in the middle of Heide... Read More

Without a doubt, one of my favorite things about traveling is eating all kinds of delicious foods! I had a hunch that other travelers may feel the same way, so I posed the question to our “likers” on Facebook: “My favorite meal I’ve ever had was _______________ in _______________. Fill in th... Read More

It’s important to us at WorldStrides that every student has the opportunity to pet a dolphin in Florida, or discover what makes our government tick in Washington, D.C. That’s why we are so proud to say that our FLAG Scholarship was awarded to over 4,400 students in 2011. This means, to date, nea... Read More

“I have just returned from a week in El Salvador and it was truly an experience I will never forget. Having traveled to Costa Rica and Honduras in Central America I had high expectations for my travels in El Salvador. My experience was better than I ever expected as I was surprised at how much [&h... Read More