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Student travel is amazing. I regularly talk with high-school-age students who have never left the Greater Houston Area Jeff Hopp has decided to give up his time off during the summer to take students on trips over the summer.
How did you get started with student travel?
I went on a few trips with my wife as a chaperone since she is a teacher.
My role with EF Tours is to recruit kids and build excitement around the trip.
We offer it to our students AT Aides, Health Science students IB program.
The trips are educational but are mostly about opening people up to travel, culture, and people.
Where were you this summer?
Summer 24 – Ireland, England, and Paris
Where else have you been?
January 23 – Training Trip to Belize
Summer 23 – Costa Rica
Training trips allow you to learn how the trips work.
They are fast-paced and go, go, go
The tour directors pretty much run everything once it starts.
Plane – England – bus – castle – hotel
Wake up early and hit another landmark, a sheepdog demonstration, a bog farm…
Typically from breakfast at 8 am to dinner you are up and going.
Usually a different hotel each night.
On our last day in Paris, I walked 12 miles.
My training trip was in Belize for 5 days
We went to Costa Rica with 25 students
January 2023 – Belize (training trip)
2023 – Costa Rica
2024 – Ireland England
2025 – Italy Greece
2026 – Thailand Cambodia
What company do you use?
1 chaperone travels for free for every 6 kids that pay.
With 30 people you get a private tour.
Why do you spend your summers with students?
These are typically students we would be around all year. Our trips are not open campus-wide. Students have become accustomed to the trips. The kids come into the year looking forward to the opportunity.
Pros and cons of student travel?
We took phones away at dinner and then the kids opened up. They got noisy at dinner because they were talking to each other, bonding, and creating memories.
As an Athletic Trainer you might have summer duties, so traveling with students could eat into the few weeks you have at home.
My wife was gone for 10 days and she got back at the same time I was leaving for my trip. We missed half of the summer together.
Get started on your student travels:
https://forms.gle/TjWqkh923cumhYVL8
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