Immersive Partnership-Based Travel Programs
World Leadership School’s travel programs are immersive journeys to discover the warmth, vibrancy, and strength of people living and working in communities around the world. Along the journey, students see the world — and themselves — in new ways.
We use travel as a powerful tool for guiding students towards lives of purpose. During their program, students experience a curriculum that helps them explore two key questions: “Who am I?” and “How do I connect to the world?” We support this learning by creating a safe learning community and plenty of time for reflection. Students may find themselves working with a farmer in Peru to plow fields with oxen, making chapati bread on a wood-fired oven in India, or walking to school at dawn with children in Tanzania. Rather than traveling to many places, students stay in one community developing authentic relationships and going deeper into learning.
Our programs are designed around the paradigm of “disconnect, decenter and re-envision.” Students disconnect from technology and their normal rhythms of life; they are de-centered, or pushed off balance, by immersive experiences; and they are paired with peer students and local leaders in order to re-envision the world and their place in it.
Prior to traveling, students explore key themes via our pre-trip curriculum. At the end of the program, students share a leadership story that helps them crystallize their dreams and goals before heading home. Students often reach enduring realizations that guide them after the program ends.
On programs lasting between 5 and 21 days, participants are immersed in a small close-knit community setting. Students learn to listen, observe, and “walk together” with community members in their daily lives. The emphasis is on building personal relationships and sustainable partnerships with local schools, community partners and non-profit organizations. In line with the theory of Asset Based Community Development, we expose participants to the incredible and inspiring work being done by local leaders and organizations. Our goal is to highlight their work to inspire participants to think about how they can have a positive impact on their communities.
Our students explore leadership by working alongside leaders in our local communities. Students quickly realize that these leaders come in many shapes and sizes: some are outgoing, while others are shy. Some are educated, while others have little schooling. Some are elected, while others have no title at all. But our community leaders share three things in common, as this video explains, which is the core of World Leadership School’s philosophy on leadership.
