What teachers have to say after the experience with their students.

I didn’t expect to personally see such dramatic changes in individuals within such a short time frame. I never thought that students would have challenged themselves so much in positive ways and grown so much as a group.

Jen- “[Students get] a greater sense of self-awareness and independence, heightened sense of maturity, better understanding of personal strengths and areas of improvement, the ability to compare and contrast culture based on lived experiences (particularly the home stay experience) and greater ability to adapt and recognize the difference between needs and wants.”

Thoughts on student travel – Liam Gallagher

“There are few things in this world that I enjoy more than looking out a plane window. When it’s all stretched out in front of you, I gain a perspective that makes me feel small and wonderfully in tune at the same time. Small amongst the mountains and the clouds, but resonating with the wind, the trees and the people. I’ve always believed that my teacher self has a responsibility to help students find their own resonance with this world; to help students find a harmony between themselves and the world around them.

Liam co-created the first trips of the Global Classroom Project and has been leading trips at Project Learn for the past 5 years.

No other classroom helps them gain this harmony as well as traveling. The art of travel exposes them to different cultures, languages, and ecosystems as well as exposing them to a new side of themselves. A deeper sense of self emerges as you travel further from home; empowering even the meekest of student to firmly plant their feet on foreign soil. To stand confidently in the unknown developing their confidence, their compassion and their cultural competency. International travel for today’s youth is even more important as the globe shrinks, cultural borders blur, and globalization continues to march onward. All of the solutions to the world’s biggest problems – poverty, climate change, and war – begin with compassion and cultural awareness. By empowering students to engage themselves in a travel experience, we plant the seeds for their actions and choices in the future.

Jason’s Global classroom initiative seeks to inspire the next generation of leaders. He is building the foundation for a lifetime of learning in his students that has reverberations far beyond any traditional classroom walls. For learning is far more powerful when your classrooms are the clouds, the mountains and the rivers. You’ll learn a great deal more when you listen to the wind, feel the fabric of a new culture and speak a different language. Jason, keep pushing to build this Global Classroom and always remember to say your prayers but be sure to bring your shovel.”

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