Exceptional experience in every way!

The Colorado Amigos experience exceeded all of our expectations for our 17 year old son.

My wife participated in an Amigos program in northern Mexico in the mid 1990's and, to this day, the experience, learnings and friends have truly been life changing for her. As we were evaluating programs for our son, Amigos was one of several that we researched.

Throughout that discovery process, from the Zoom information sessions to the 1:1 engagement with their leadership team and follow up touchpoints our son had with recent alums of the program, it was clear it was not only first class but also very well structured, organized and led.

The application process was straightforward and the pre-trip communication excellent. There are a number of things that you have to do that I wasn't expecting, such as physical and mental health clearances, travel power of attorney, etc., but they were administrative and not a hassle. The pre trip Covid protocols were a bit stressful as you had to have a negative test result from a certified lab (not a at home test), and if you tested positive you couldn't go, but we had our son hunker down and it all worked out.

The Colorado program has its own Instagram page, which was updated every 2-4 days, so we were able to follow along during the trip as well as with the student written blog posts.

But the best part of the experience, for us as parents, was greeting the young man stepping off the escalator at baggage claim on his return. In just three short weeks he not only had learned exponentially more than we thought he would about the land, resources, ecosystem challenges, sustainability, etc., but he also matured in powerful way that is almost hard to put a finger on. But we can see it in a revised worldview, much stronger focus on the areas of study he wants to pursue in college (spoiler alert: they are a blend of sustainability and business ethics), and an entirely new, first person learned, understanding of a far wider range of people, political views and personal identity issues than he had ever been exposed to in the safety bubble of his 'buddies', who all think, dress, talk, and act the same.

So from a parent's viewpoint, I couldn't recommend serious consideration of the Amigos Colorado program more enthusiastically nor genuinely.