Why Choose the Global Service Program?
Depth of experience. For over sixty-five years, George School has been providing students with transformative and safe international volunteer experiences. In addition to two or three trips through the Global Service Program (GSP), every year we offer five international service trips for our own students.
Experienced leaders. Because the GSP operates in part as a training program for teachers from other schools, we ensure that our trip leaders have experience taking students on overseas trips. Some of our leaders have led over 20 international trips!
Adult supervision ratio. We typically have a high ratio of adults to students in our trips. Because adults-in-training participate along with two seasoned trip leaders, it is normal for us to have at least a 1:3 ratio of adults to students, providing us with more student supervisory capacity.
Quality of experience. Our trips are primarily service learning trips. While many other programs have a service learning component, we make sure that our participants complete 65 hours of collaborative service that focuses on issues of concern in the communities where we travel. This not only makes it easy for students to fulfill any service project requirements for their school but also helps make a college application stand out.
Home stay component. We have a significant home stay component to our trips. Living with host families and understanding first-hand their culture, traditions, hardships and joys is by far the most transformative part of the overseas service learning experience.
Language immersion. Our home stays are with families who speak little or no English; this makes for a great language immersion experience for those who want to improve their language skills. For our current trips, this would mean Spanish or Mandarin.
Careful advance planning. In advance of each trip, a GSP leader either personally visits the country program site, or the GSP works with its country partners who carry out the site visit. By doing this, we can work out any last minute details that may be necessary to make the trip as safe and meaningful as possible.
Rigorous family selection criteria. We have a specific set of criteria that needs to be met for families to host our participants such as the ability to supply potable water and a clean bed for the participants, and a willingness to be actively involved in the day-to-day activities of the group. Our goal is to identify host families who have teen-aged children to enhance the cultural experience. Host families must live in close proximity of each other and where the trip leaders will be staying. Host families are chosen in conjunction with the Global Service Program Director and our in-country partners. In most cases, the families have experience hosting groups of foreign visitors.
Mandatory pre-trip workshops. Participants start their service learning experience during the mandatory pre-trip workshops that focus on the concept of service and the history, culture, and norms of the countries and communities where we will travel. Workshops also provide useful skills such as basic instruction in how to communicate across language barriers and how to provide basic instruction in English as a foreign language.
Team building. These domestic workshops provide valuable time for team-building and bonding between the trip participants. By the time our participants board the plane for their destination, they are fast friends with the group members and have started to learn how to work together and support each other.