Teen Travel Opportunities
Below is a list of travel opportunities for teenage travelers:
• AFS-USA awards $4.5 million annually in scholarships to teens seeking to travel abroad: https://www.afsusa.org/study-abroad/scholarships
• Included among its many annual scholarships, AFS-USA offers applicants the opportunity to win a full scholarship to go abroad to the country of their choice plus one of eight countries targeted for solving social problems affecting human rights and sustainability: https://www.afsusa.org/project-change/
• The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in conjunction with the German Bundestag, provides scholarships for student travel to Germany. Scholarship recipients not only become entitled to use the moniker “Congress-Bundestag Scholar” but they also get to visit the German Bundestag and select German cities while living with a German host family and attending a German high school. Over 300 American high school students annually receive these full scholarships to travel to Germany by applying online at: http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/about/
• The Sons of Norway Foundation provides scholarships that promote student travel to Norway: https://www.sofn.com/foundation/scholarships/
• One independent foundation that specializes in creating such unique “travel” scholarships for Teens is the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholars Program that feature an Individual Learning Plan beginning in 8th grade: https://www.jkcf.org/our-scholarships/young-scholars-program/
• If you are a Teen living in the any part of the former Soviet Union, the American Councils for International Education administers the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program that provides with expense-free travel to the U.S., a monthly allowance, a U.S. host family to live with and study in an American high school for a year. Over 900 students annually travel to the U.S. via the FLEX Program which was originally created by the U.S. Congress in 1993: http://discoverflex.org/
The Council on Standards for International Educational Travel maintains a website that provides links to its current Advisory List of inbound and outbound programs:
o http://members.csiet.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=2512&pk_association_webpage=8444
o http://members.csiet.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=2512&pk_association_webpage=8445
o http://members.csiet.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=2512&pk_association_webpage=8285
• Teen travelers can create their own travel scholarships via a go-fund-me site at:
www.fundmytravel.com
• Community Service in Costa Rica:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/intro-to-community-service-in-costa-rica/
• Build a development project with the indigenous Bribri tribe in Costa Rica:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/bribri-indigenous-culture-and-service/
• Visit a Turtle Conservation Project in Costa Rica:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/turtle-conservation-project/
• Community Service in Fiji:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/intro-to-community-service-in-fiji/
• Visit an Elephant Conservation Center in Laos:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/wonders-of-laos
• Community Service in the Sacred Valley of Peru:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/sacred-valley-service-spring-break/
• Visit the Karen Villages in Northwestern Thailand:
https://rusticpathways.com/students/programs/access-to-education-thailand/
