Leadership and Community Engagement: Peru

Cuzco is the storied capital of the Inca dynasty and gateway to the imperial city of Machu Picchu.

On every evening of the program, we will set time aside to update our Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come to the fore in the course of the day.

Camp Moray is situated on a beautiful high plateau (3,600m) close to the world-famous Sacred Valley of the Incas. This unique wilderness camp gives you a true taste of what it is like to live in the Andes, with spectacular mountain views across the valley and a real feeling of space and remoteness, allowing you utter peace and a chance to get away from it all.

Arriving in camp, you will be greeted by representatives of the community and a hot drink. We will do a short tour of the community and camp and get settled into your tents.

Following on from the project briefing, the group starts by thinking deeply about their goals for the week; in a framed, student-led discussion forum. In Camp Moray we are working on projects concerned both with education and nutrition, and those two areas are naturally linked. Those projects have been identified through dialogue with the community and the local authorities and are considered vital for the future of these remote mountain communities. Through an understanding of the process of dialogue, the development of ideas and the aims that we have, the group can identify their own goals, plan for those and then work towards their own objectives.

Kajllarakay is in a remote area in the Sacred Valley of the Incas that has been largely forgotten in terms of funding or development. We are working with local schools to build and improve infrastructure and ensure children have access to a quality education. We are also working closely with the local municipality to fulfil basic sanitation requirements in the community such as flushing toilets, sinks, and shower facilities. Deforestation in South America is at a critical level and in this region around Cuzco, destruction rates are unprecedented. Communities rely on wood for survival. However, wood harvesting is far beyond sustainable levels. Our reforestation program aims to replenish this invaluable source by planting native trees back into the region.

In the evening, you will have a chance to get your dancing shoes on and try out some traditional dancing with the local community.

A student-focused discussion of Leadership, its challenges, models, and aims. The students will be asked to think about these issues particularly in the context of their current environment and activities. What has worked, what hasn't? Are we on schedule for our own aims? How could we do things differently?

Other projects in the community include building toilets for households, helping improve the health of families, the community as a whole and the surrounding area. Further, the community, unusually for this area, doesn't have a communal building. Andean communities are active and strong and they meet together to discuss common issues, make plans for their futures, elect leaders and maintain a community-wide social life. Having a communal house is vital for the long-term viability of the community and is something that we are working on with the community authorities. The hard work on the projects is often rounded off with a game of soccer with the "maestros." At this altitude, it pays to manage your game carefully, and stints in goal are a favorite way to have a rest and breathe a little bit. For those who are still awake after dinner, some hot chocolate and roasting of marshmallows on the campfire, under a spectacular roof of thousands of stars, is always a fun way to end the day in the camp

Camps has a series of interactive lectures, that cover subjects such as Stakeholder Engagement, Citizen Science, and Threats to Biodiversity. These sessions can be run following discussion with the school of the topics considered most appropriate to the group.

This morning the group has the opportunity to make sure they have put any finishing touches to the service work. There will be a gathering whereby your group can hand over the work you have done to the locals - a proud moment of reflection as you look at what you have achieved and the positive impact you have made.

A small town with houses built on top of Inca walls and with a massive archaeological site right in its center. We will explore this site, climbing up on huge terraces and looking across the narrow valley at beautiful, and ingenious, ancient grain stores.

Board a train and travel through the Sacred Valley for a full-day excursion to Peru's most famous destination, the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.

Set on a mountaintop, deep in the jungle, Machu Picchu remained unknown to the outside world until 1912.

In the afternoon we will return by train to Cusco, the train journey itself is wondrous and the carriages' partially glass roofs offer great views upwards to the cliffs that form the walls of the deep valleys.

Our guide will explain how the Conquistadors built churches on top of Inca temples, and show you the hard evidence of that which still exists in the form of magnificent and complex stone walls. You will visit Qorikancha, the epicentre of the Inca Empire, home to some of the finest Inca stonework and a place to learn about the social structures and ambitions of that once great Empire.

A student-led session, following on from the previous reflection sessions, in which the group identifies goals achieved, both group and individual, both internal to the group and externally in the service work achievements, to bring context and resolution to the week's experience before heading home. This evening we make the final entries in our Reflection Journal and individuals can, if they want to, share significant individual observations with the group.

At dinner, a local dance troop will entertain you and, of course, offer the chance for members of the group to show off the skills they learned while dancing at Camp Moray.

As a result of participating on this program, all high school students are eligible to take an online Global Perspectives course through a learning management system, where all the grading and assessment will be undertaken by the WorldStrides Curriculum and Academics team. Our partnership with George Mason University provides students in grades 9-12 at the time of travel an opportunity to enroll in courses to earn college credit. Students must meet George Mason University’s admissions requirements to receive the credit, including reporting a 2.8 GPA or above. Upon successful completion and the processing of credits, a transcript may be ordered directly from WorldStrides or George Mason University.

In most cases, your flight home is overnight. You will return home on Day 10.