Eye-Opening High School Experience 🌎😁🤩

As a student, traveling with Global Glimpse was not only a great way to experience new cultures and explore new places, but also a valuable learning opportunity. The program took me to a completely new environment, allowing me to immerse myself in a different culture and engage with local communities in a meaningful way. What stood out to me about Global Glimpse was how engaging and fulfilling the activities were. Being a student in high school with a small agenda I don't think I would have had the chance to milk goats, plant trees, paint a mural, go behind the scenes in a bakery, visit prominent monuments or meet a famous costume designer if it wasn't for my participation with Global Glimpse.

Personal Impact:
One of the most valuable aspects of my Global Glimpse experience was the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds and learn from their unique perspectives. Being able to connect with locals, learn their stories, or even just conversate with them at the local shops, was what impacted me the most. These conversations helped me view life from a different perspective and opened my mind to new ideas.
Through engaging activities such as nightly meetings, seminars, and field trips, the students and staff were also able to learn from each other's similarities and differences to ignite long lasting friendships.

Highlight:
The days where we visited local businesses and learned the aspects of running a business in Las Tablas, were some of my favorite moments. On our "working like a local" day, we visited La Finca El Espinal, a goat farm in Las Tablas. Here the owner let us feed and milk his goats, along with fertilize the big goat's food. We spent most the day here asking question, listening to the owner speak, eating goat ice-cream and helping out at the farm. What truly inspires me was his story of the upbringing of his business, how small it was when he started and how much it has grown, this inspires me to pursue any aspirations I have in life with passion and hard work.

Our Impact:
Through collaborative projects we were able to support the local community in multiple ways. Three days of our trip were dedicated to our “CAP” (Community Action Project). This time was spent executing project(s), designed by the students to help a particular organization, chosen by Global Glimpse. For my trip, the non-profit organization we contributed to was Nutre Hogar, a recovery center for malnourished kids. Here, we organized and executed three projects, tree-planting, Netting, and mural painting, which all created sustainable impacts to Nutre Hogar's facility, children, staff, and way of living.

Balanced Schedule:
In addition to visiting many guest speakers, attending program seminars, and required mealtime, there was always a balance between these structured activities and the amount of free time we had on hand. This free time was necessary because it gave students the opportunity to rest, enjoy the accommodation, or even explore the town for a few hours. Likewise, allowing us to demonstrate our responsibility and skills as leaders, along with giving us the chance to bond with the other Glimpsers on our trip.

Inspired:
Before my trip, I had very little knowledge of what I wanted to do with my future, let alone after high school. However, experiencing life at a different angle for two weeks, has sparked new ideas of potential career pathways for me to pursue in the future. Additionally, Global Glimpse has developed a deep passion in me to travel abroad and even dedicate more time to studying Spanish.

Space for improvement:
I feel as time went on, us Glimpsers found ourselves forming into cliques, and stuck with those same people for the duration of the trip. As a result, we missed the opportunity to get to know everyone during our trip. I believe doing more structured group activities or icebreakers will improve how we interact with each other and separate from those cliques.

This experience is the highlight of my High School career, and I would recommend this opportunity to any student willing to step out of their comfort zone and explore. 😊😊