The Traveling School's Semester in South America

I did the South America semester in the spring of 2024. I was super nervous to go to TTS my junior spring, and to be honest I faced a fair amount of homesickness, but I don’t regret it a single bit. I really wanted to leave my high school for a bit and I met my best friends for life. You make such a close connection with everyone and these are people I thought I would never even come across because we all have such different lifestyles. Not only are the friends great but this is truly an experience no other high schooler will experience. Yes classes and homework sometimes isn’t my favorite, but the people I met and cultures and places I saw is truly something I never would have imagined experiencing. Seeing places like the salt flats, an active silver mine, and the amazon jungle are things I never thought I would put on my bucket list let alone cross off. I also was really able to grow my spanish skills and now I want to continue my Spanish education into college, which is surprising since all of middle school and high school I’ve strongly disliked Spanish class. Meeting locals was also a really big highlight for me; I would just feel so much more connected to the new environment we were in when I got to get to know the people around me, and practice my Spanish skills. Also, we do so many random fun activities like zip lining, surfing, tubing, rafting, and so much more while your school friends back at home are taking a test because it’s a Tuesday. Overall, I am so happy that I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone because everyone tells me I came back a different person, as I’m more confident in myself and when I’m with the people around me, and I am so much more knowledgeable than before. TTS really help set me up for success since I not only grew as a student but as a person.

Last semester, as a sophomore, I decided to take a leap of faith to join TTS on its 23 semester. There is no such thing as a 'normal' day with The Traveling School. Due to the constant movement and changing of locations every day is unknown. On a full class day classes began at around 8:00am (typically) and ended at around 2:30/3:00pm. Classes are never in a classroom setting, they are almost always outside, many Spanish classes were spent conversing with locals in markets/city plazas. In the beginning of the semester we participated in running, soccer and conditioning before our day started in order for us to acclimate and prepare for rigorous trekking and hiking excisions.

I would recommend the TTS semester in South America to any outdoorsy girl who has a desire to strengthen her Spanish, has a passion/interest towards environmental issues and wants challenge herself physically. The four months I spent with the program included some of the most memorable days of my life thus far and I would go back in a heartbeat.

I was hesitant to leave my home at first but this trip was the greatest experience of my life thus far. I studied abroad in the spring of 2010 and still keep in touch with the girls on my trip. I experienced so many new cultures and ideas and grew so much as a person. The teachers became my mentors and friends, the girls my sisters and even the administration are people I feel I can talk to and look up to. I loved this experience and learned more there experientially than I could hope to learn elsewhere. Thank you for this experience, I would not trade it for the world!

I had never traveled outside the US before but I had always wanted to. This program gave me an opportunity to travel and gain a memorable high school experience that continues to influence my interests in college. My first trip was traveling through the Andes. I had so much fun and learned so much that I took a second semester to Southern Africa. On these trips I learned how to pack for travel, what sort of accommodations to expect, how to find places to stay, and I learned that traveling outside of the US is possible and doable. While I learned how to travel, I learned about the history, culture, and biology of the areas I visited. The classes were designed around the areas we traveled, which made the experience even more meaningful. During my trip I also had to take an algebra class to fulfill requirements at my home high school. Before the trip I had no interest in math, however, taking it at The Traveling School made even a subject I disliked fun. I will never forget the history classes where we visited the sites of the historic occurrences and learned by reenacting what happened. I will never forget biology classes where I actually got to see Darwin's birds and hike through the exotic environments I was learning about. The setting of The Traveling School provides a place to grow through experience and education. This program didn't just get me excited to learn, I also learned how to travel which has prepared me for college and planning my own trips.

I went to the South America spring semester. Not a day goes by when I don't think about the experiences I had. I decided to study abroad after spending a couple of years feeling "stuck" in high school. Although everything was going well, I felt like I could do so much more with my life. After a TON of research and talking with my parents, I applied and was accepted to the Traveling School. What I found in those 15 weeks in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia was a community of absolutely normal girls from all over the United States that chose to do something untraditional and awesome. What resulted were some of the most incredible, genuine, excited friends I have ever had. So it was the people that made my experience so extraordinary, but we were enabled by the places we traveled to and how we did so. Having never backpacked before, I was somewhat nervous to dive into a 70 Liter backpack that held my closet, school, bedroom, anything and everything I needed. I feel in love with it, and how it empowering it was to carry all my belongings to incredible place to incredible place. I fell in love with the snow-capped Andes and the sands of the Galapagos and the wide countryside. And if I'm getting a little cheesily poetic, apologies, I'm clearly getting a tad nostalgic. Academically, what I found at TTS was not as rigorous as I was used to (and this varies wildly semester to semester), but that was okay because it gave me time to learn other things, about myself, the place around me, and my experience, and I am so grateful for that. Coming back to everyday life after TTS was a difficult transition for me, honestly- I desperately missed the soul-deep friendships I made and the lifestyle of discovery and novelty and learning I had grown accustomed to. But I adapted, and I found myself so much better for those 15 weeks. I am more self-assured, open, adventurous, and focused. TTS was a defining experience.