Al Campo International: Immersion Adventures in Hondura

Thank you for the opportunity to share our experience with Al Campo and Tim Gibb.

First, allow me to provide a little background about me for perspective. I have been in the field of adventure education for almost 20 years now, leading multi-day to month long extended wilderness experiences throughout the western US. I have a long history as the primary lead instructor and have gradually moved into a partial administrative position so I can continue to spend time in the field with students. I have worked with adjudicated youth, public school students, university students and currently at a private school. For the last four years I have held the Adventure Coordinator Position at our school and recently was promoted to Assistant Head of School as well. It has been here, that I have had the opportunity to expand my programming experience to the international context. Our school has been providing international trips for 14 years and we have utilized multiple providers. My experience with Al Campo has been the best by far from the other providers we have worked with. I had worked with Tim for two years prior to establish the connection with our school. We will continue to use his program each year for our international trip.

At our school all Juniors participate in the international trip as part of our curriculum. Tim has worked tirelessly to create an educational program that meets the specific needs of our school, which includes, education, service, and recreation. In addition he has been diligent in all of his risk management procedures, documentation, communication and thoughtfulness at responding to the concerns of our families. This year we are going to provide the international experience to our 9th and 10th grade students as well.

Our school sends two faculty as part of our trip. However, Tim or one of his employees was always present and available to our faculty and students throughout the trip. I am personally a beginning spanish speaker (whereas our students are fluent), and I never felt like we were in a position of not being supported or guided throughout our experience. I did not ever get the sense that we were "unsupervised".

Medical issues
These areas we followed all of Tim's recommendation prior to our trip and we prepared our students in advance to be diligent and listen to Tim's or his employees recommendations or they would be jeopardizing their own health and ultimately impact the entire group. None of our students had problems during our 10 day trip. Tim did a great job of working with us in advance to make certain we had the information we needed prior to the trip to be successful. As for medical treatment, we did not need it, but I have spoken with Tim at length and feel confident that he is able to manage these issues as they arise.

Homestays
Our school insurance does not allow for individual home-stays so we utilize a group stay option, however, I am working to remove that exclusion so our students can have that experience. I believe that it is a great opportunity for students, and after meeting and working with the locals that Tim associates with I believe our students would be well cared for. Our experience with the local people was exceptionally positive, and the individuals we worked with, ate meals with, and shared time with all struck me as good hard working individuals. Not once did I have a negative "vibe" from the people I met. I do think Tim does a good job of setting the stage for the group coming in and educating the local people about the group as much as the group about the locals.

Central America
I cannot wait to return, it was an amazing experience. A good balance of education, work, recreation, interactions with locals yet time to relax and recuperate. The experience of our students from last years trip was by far the best response we have had on an International trip since I have been employed here. Some of our students are considering participating in one of the summer programs. Personally, my wife and I are planning on traveling ourselves to learn and explore more.

I hope that I was able to provide helpful information, I know it can be a difficult decision to send/let your children travel to a foreign country with an unknown provider. I do not take it lightly that I ask our parents to make this same decision for the students of our school. I am pleased to have Tim Gibb and Al Campo as our schools international trip provider.

Sincerely,

David Schmid