George School is a truly global community, with students representing 23 states and 47 countries and a thriving International Baccalaureate diploma program. The school has long been committed to empowering students to build rich, life-long relationships through deep learning about cultures and perspectives. Key to this commitment is over 75 years of creating and offering travel service-learning opportunities, both domestically and internationally. Meaningful and nostalgic for both alumni and current students, these travel experiences strengthen bonds among classmates while also helping them begin to see themselves as global citizens. 

With a fresh, innovative Academic Program and an extraordinary gift, these opportunities have a modernized approach while still holding onto the most essential components of their origins. 

The Academic Program, with its unique five-week, seven-term schedule, allows students time to prepare for, engage in, and reflect on interdisciplinary immersion experiences without missing class time or cutting into school breaks. Program Director Meredith Baldi ’01, who participated in a trip when she was a George School student, has a deep understanding of the foundational values of the program, now known as “Engaged Citizenship.”

“Travel at George School is about much more than community service,” explains Meredith. “It is about diving deep into understanding structural issues in our world, thinking about how you might improve those issues, and what the limits are. It is about learning more about the self, what you can contribute, and what you need to work on.”

Recently, an anonymous donor ensured that each student has the choice to enroll in an Engaged Citizenship course at least once over their time at George School.

“These funds will be a significant step toward our goal of ensuring that each of our students receives the fullness of a George School experience unrestricted by the financial constraints more and more of our families feel in their efforts to provide the best possible education for their students,” said Head of School Justin Brandon.

The tradition of engaged citizenship began at George School in 1947, when history teacher Walter Mohr clearly envisioned exposing students to the tangible evidence that war wrought on humanity. He sought German schools who would establish a relationship with George School and make a connection between that was spiritual as well as material, and two-way rather than one-sided. The goal was simple and profound: “to help lessen the causes of conflict among nations.”

Today, George School’s engaged citizen-students travel as close as Newtown and Philadelphia and as far as the Amazon and the Netherlands. And the innovative Academic Program allows teachers the ability to design and teach courses immersively. “Experiential learning is so much more powerful when students have an academic foundation before they start the work, and time structured at the end to process their experiences,” Meredith explained.

Students have two weeks in the classroom to learn and prepare, without other classes and assignments to distract them. During this time, they study both the academic coursework relevant to the region, along with the history, culture, and current events surrounding the community they will be visiting. After two weeks of travel, they return to the classroom to reflect and create projects or presentations to share with the larger community.

“The most important part of our travel program stems from a legacy of wanting our students not just to learn abstractly, but directly through experience,” shared Meredith. “Understanding our world directly, not just through a textbook, increases our level of care and commitment to the people and places around us. The relationships we form are long-lasting, and understanding global issues from a lived and seen place of understanding helps cultivate a desire for our students and alumni to promote peace and justice throughout their lives.”

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COMING SOON: TRIPS THIS SUMMER

Botswana, Africa

France, Europe

Poland, Europe

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A TASTE OF WHAT IS SET FOR 2026

England, Europe (Winter 2026)

New Orleans, North America (Winter 2026)

Panama, Central America (Winter 2026)

Tanzania, Africa (Winter 2026)

Vietnam, Asia (Winter 2026)

Armenia, Asia (Summer 2026)

Camino de Santiago, Europe (Summer 2026)

The Netherlands, Europe (Summer 2026)

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Interested in learning more about the trips taken in Fall 2024? Read about how travel and service learning meets the moment with George School’s unique Academic Program.