Project Travel

We provide easy to adopt and simple to use technology and services to international educators and travelers. Watch a 2 minute intro of our software Via at http://u.gopt.me/Via2MinDemo.

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The Active Search for an International Program

At Project Travel, we encourage travelers to be active in their search for an international program, so they can fully benefit from the opportunities available to them.

As a traveler, this means thinking more specifically about your objectives, exploring your options, and consulting with study abroad advisors throughout the process. By taking these three steps, you can make achieving your goal of going abroad simple and fun.

Know why you want to study abroad.

Establishing goals is an important part of the program search. Early on, you should be coming up with a short list of specific and actionable goals that you’d like to accomplish while abroad.

These will serve as a guide to not only help find your ideal program, but create focus.

When I was planning to study abroad, I was intent on practicing my Spanish. With this goal in mind, I was able to narrow the field of options down to locations in Latin America and Spain. This greatly simplified my search, and made it easy to keep moving forward.

Armed with an understanding of the differences between studying in Latin America and Spain, I was able to use the rest of my list to come to a decision: a business program in Sevilla, Spain.

Get familiar with the Program Landscape.

Figure out what kinds of programs are out there, and think about how they match up with the goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Know that study abroad programs are not your only option.

Keep an open mind about service-learning, intern abroad, and all of the other ways that you can partake in an educational travel experience.

Make use of your study abroad office.

Now that you have your goals and understand your options. You probably have some questions. Now would be the time to visit your advisor to discuss any concerns you’d like to have addressed.

One reservation that I had was whether I would be able to balance weekend travel with my coursework in Spain. My advisor was able to use the feedback that she got from an alumni of my program to answer my question. Turns out that my program only had a four-day week, so I was able to do a ton of traveling while abroad. And I may not have ended up in Sevilla without having spoken to my advisor about it first.

Study abroad advisors are super helpful resource for anyone looking to go abroad, and by doing a bit of preliminary research on what kinds of opportunities are available, your meetings with them will be much more valuable.

So set yourself up for success. Be proactive with your search and don’t hesitate to ask questions. Dive in during the planning stage, and make the most of your international program!

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Creating Value Through Your Study Abroad Office Website

In a study abroad office, it’s tempting to focus the effort that you put into your website primarily into getting students to sign up for advising appointments. Because after all, that is where students are going to get the most mileage towards applying for a program.

However, many students aren’t willing to commit to an in-person appointment with a study abroad advisor until they have a better understanding of what they’re actually getting themselves into. In order to accommodate these students, your website should serve as an extension of the services that you offer in the study abroad office.

Empower your students.

While it’s always a good idea to try to drive students towards making an appointment with one of your advisors, they should still be able to make meaningful progress towards applying for a program before taking that step.

Your students should never feel like they’re being blocked by something on your end, it’s the study abroad office’s job to empower their students any way that they can.

Start by creating your own materials.

Create content that covers the kinds of things that students should be thinking about when they’re preparing to study abroad. What kinds of programs are available to them? Where should they go? What goals should they be setting for themselves?

Your office has its own philosophy about all of these issues, and by generating content that can live on your website, you have the opportunity to share it with your students.

Fill in the gaps with other information sources.

There’s a whole host of incredibly valuable information on studying abroad out there, and it doesn’t always make sense to reinvent the wheel. For example, why would you ever want to write a guide on applying for a US passport, when the Department of State already does such a nice job? University of Minnesota’s Learning Abroad Center’s website is a great model for how to share content from around the web with your own students.

However, you should think carefully about the way that you link to external resources.

Don’t just link to websites where students can conduct further research. Instead, connect them directly to the articles on those sites that provide the information that they need. Your students’ lives will be made so much easier if they only have to make one stop.

Reel them in.

By extending your advising services to your online platform, you not only help your students develop a better understanding of the value of studying abroad, but also the steps that they need to take to get involved. And if they read carefully enough, your students might realize that one of the best things they can do for themselves is walk through your office’s doors.

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Five Tips for a Better Study Abroad Blog

A study abroad blog is a great way to document what you’ve seen and learned through your travels. It gives you a platform where you can share all of these things with the world. But most blogs fall short, and their main readership oftentimes ends up becoming friends held captive by their own politeness. So if you want to make sure that you’re not just shouting into the void (or at your friends), you need to create content that’s going to entertain your readers and make them want to come back for more.

Here’s what you should do:

1.)    Write frequently.

Fresh content keeps the blog alive. Being up-to-date keeps readers coming back. So try to turn out articles on a regular basis. Having a schedule that you stick to can be really helpful for this. Your memory also isn’t perfect. Don’t let ideas and experiences go to waste because you can no longer remember exactly what you’ve been doing. The more often that you’re putting pencil to paper, the less opportunities you’ll let slip through the cracks. However, you don’t want to blog too frequently, or you’ll risk creating noise.

2.)    Keep it concise.

A blog post isn’t a novel. Your readers don’t want to spend hours poring over a single post. You can only hold their attention for so long, so get to the point. If you have a longer piece that you want to produce, it’s better to break it down into a handful of smaller posts to make it more digestible.

3.)    Write stories, not itineraries.

When people visit your blog, they’re looking for a narrative. Don’t just list all the things that you did in a day, tell a story. Give your readers a sense of what it’s like to see, hear, and feel what you’re writing about. Sharing your itinerary is just going to bore people. Decide what needs to be omitted, and what activities could provide a compelling story, and put your time into writing about those.

4.)    Be a teacher.

Educate your readers. Give context to your stories by teaching them about the places that you see. Your blog should be informative. When people visit it, they want to learn something about the culture and history of where you are. They’re called fun facts for a reason, so make every post as fun as possible by sharing all of the cool things that you’ve learned on your trip. Not only does this give your visitors something to gain from reading your work, it also gives some context to your stories.

5.)    Be visual.

Carefully plan out the visual element of every single piece of content you produce. Photos, graphs, and even text formatting are vital to your blog, and it’s not as hard to create visual content as you might think. Especially in a travel blog, photos are crucial. Your readers don’t just want you to tell them about your adventures, they want to see them. But don’t stop there, use graphs and charts to highlight cool trends and data that you’ve discovered about the places that you’ve visited. Visual aids can be incredibly helpful for teaching readers about what you’ve learned from your travels. And even think about the way that you format the text in your posts. By using line breaks and headers more effectively, you can better indicate to your readers what’s important, so they can more effectively navigate each of your articles.

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3 Reasons Study Abroad Offices Should Invest in Their Websites

In the past, the main way that study abroad offices were able to reach out to students was through on-campus events like study abroad fairs. This kind of face-to-face contact with students still plays an incredibly important role, especially for advising, but as time goes on, more and more of their interactions with students are going to be taking place online. And this is a good thing.

But simply having a website is not enough. Professionals in international education need to be engaging students throughout the advising process, starting with their websites. And these are the three biggest reasons why.

1.) More students are using the internet than ever before.

In 2014, almost 87% of the US population had internet access, that’s nearly 280 million people, and that number is still growing.

Because of today’s massive online presence, high school and college students have grown up interacting with it on a daily basis. The internet, for them, is the most effective way to connect with the people, activities, and events that they find most interesting. So if international educators use their websites effectively, they’ll be able to use them to communicate with a far greater number of students than ever before.

2.) Students want to do it themselves.

Young people today are the most efficient information-seekers out there. Google ensures that the answer to any question they may have is just a few clicks and keystrokes away.

Students are used to being self-reliant when it comes to searching for new information, but they have a notoriously short attention span. If what they’re looking for isn’t immediately available, they’ll stop looking. And because they’re so used to doing these things for themselves, they’re not always the best at asking for help (like visiting the study abroad office).

This is especially problematic for students looking to study abroad, where finding the right information can be incredibly difficult. Even a simple search like “Where should I study abroad?” is met with nearly a whole page of personality quizzes that people can take to get matched with a location, which is fun, but doesn’t exactly provide much valuable insight for the student.

To address this, study abroad office websites could be the one-stop shop for all of the questions their students might have about studying abroad. Through their online platforms, they can provide the material that students need to answer their questions, and use it as a way to gently guide them towards their offices for advising appointments.

3.) Technology can improve the advising experience.

The more value that international educators provide through the content on their websites, the more time students will spend on them. Time that they’ll be learning all about the philosophy of their study abroad office and what things are most important for them to do in order to get the ball rolling.

One of the things that educators can focus on in this content is the importance of scheduling an in-person appointment. This way, they can encourage more students to visit the study abroad office to speak with an advisor.

Not only will this drive more students to visit the study abroad office, those students will also have a better understanding of what’s expected from them at their appointments. So advisors will be able to spend less time on the fundamentals and more time exploring the unique opportunities that their advisees will have while studying abroad.

By empowering students with tools and resources on their websites, study abroad offices can improve their advising experience and help convert more people from students into travelers.

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CSU + Via = 400 Students

Recently, the Project Travel team took a road trip from Boulder to Fort Collins to kick off Via with Colorado State University. CSU used Via at their Education Abroad Fair to track student attendees. As you can imagine from the title, the Education Abroad Fair was an exciting event for Project Travel, the Education Abroad office, AND all the CSU Rams exploring international opportunities. 

With a couple iPads, laptops, and the help of a few CSU students, we were able to capture 400 of the 1200 students in attendance using Via’s 10 second electronic sign-up page* (no more inquiry cards or sign-in sheets). The Education Abroad office can now reach out to those students through Via’s various communication and engagement channels and even send targeted messages by destination, year in school, major, or a number of other data points. 

Chris Churma, Senior Coordinator, Education Abroad at CSU had this to say: 

“Having access to students through Via offers a new and unique way to reach out to and track students who attended our fair.  We have never had such detailed data on these students in the past. The ways in which we can now outreach and track these students opens up a whole new world to us!”

What do students get when they sign up for CSU’s Via account? 

Via’s Program Matching Algorithm will match them with approved CSU programs. 

Here’s how:

In Via, CSU can designate approved providers or even individual programs. At the time of the fair, three of CSU’s affiliate providers had over 500 programs in Via. After signing up at the fair, CSU students can be matched with over 500 approved provider programs in addition to the CSU programs in the Via database! 

Watch a video to see how Program Matching works:

How do you get YOUR programs into Via or designate approved providers? 

We’d love to show you. 

Visit www.projecttravel.com/organizations or email us to learn more: [email protected] 

*Side note: the CSU Rams blew the last large research institution’s fair numbers out of the water with about 33% of their fair attendees signed up. Last fall, our record was 9%. This is how rivalries are born.... 

Think you can beat that record? 

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Bring a Camera

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He’s got some experience studying abroad…. 

My parents have a huge library of photos stored on their home computer. These photos document all of the trips that we went on as a family while my brothers and I grew up. Included in these are some incredible shots of markets across Southeast Asia, panoramas of the Himalayas, and more out-of-focus pictures than you could shake a stick at (courtesy of my mom).

Each photo is better than any souvenir, the entire collection serves as a massive bank of memory-joggers for all the trips that we’ve gone on. And they also make for great conversation starters whenever we have guests. Of all the things that we’ve come home with from our trips, the photos have always been the best to share.

Underdeveloped

Despite always having access to a camera, I never really got into taking photos. I’d let my parents and brothers do all the work, so I could just focus on the experience. But once I started going on more of my own trips in college, I didn’t have my family to take pictures for me. Because of this, I have very little evidence of over two years of trips ever occurring, including a five-week stay in Barcelona following my sophomore year (which I’m still kicking myself for).

It wasn’t until I was preparing to study abroad in Sevilla, Spain during the spring of my junior year that I finally realized I had to make more of an effort. I challenged myself to take at least one quality photo every day while I was away. This forced me to take pictures when I normally wouldn’t have, and while I may have fallen short when it came to the quality requirement, I definitely made up for it in quantity.

The Takeaway

I now see the importance of taking my own photos. There’s no guarantee that someone else is going to be there to capture the moment, so I may as well do it myself. Although it can be hard to sometimes step away from the action, the photos that I take last a lifetime, and can always bring me back to when they were taken.

There’s also something nice about having my own photos and not just borrowing everyone else’s. I like the sense of ownership that I can have when I take them myself. Part of me is still a little disappointed that I contributed so little to my family’s collection, so now I’m making up for lost time.

More articles here!

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The Other Twenty Percent

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He’s got some experience studying abroad….

When it comes to enjoying your time spent abroad, open-mindedness will take you a long way. How you feel about your program is 80% attitude. If you approach the challenges that you encounter while in your host country with a growth mindset, you’re going to return home with a lot of great memories, useful skills, and new friends.

But between now and boarding the plane, it’s the other 20% that matters*. This includes figuring out where you want to be, the kind of support you’ll need, and the kinds of activities that you’re interested in, and we want you to make the most of it. Choose the right program now, and reap the benefits when you arrive in your host country.

Don’t slack.

If you’re only getting your program choice half-right, you’re losing a whole letter grade (10%) of international enjoyment just because you didn’t invest enough time and effort into the planning stage. So really take the time to think about yourself, your goals, and the vast array of options that you have available to you.

If you can get everything to come together, it’ll set the stage nicely for an unforgettable time abroad.

* You may think that we’re exaggerating with the 20% figure, but trust us, the math checks out (80% + 20% = 100%). And a ton of advisors in international education would back this claim: Your program choice matters, so give it some careful consideration.

Next up: Bring a Camera

More articles here!

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INTERNational

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He’s got some experience studying abroad….

International internships can be incredibly difficult to find, especially when you don’t have a professional network in the country that you want to work in. Different languages, cultures, and the lack of proximity can become huge barriers to your search. But knowing people with established connections to businesses where you’d like to work can get you some pretty significant mileage. This is why going through an Internship Placement Provider can be the easiest way for many prospective travelers to find an internship abroad.

Internship Placement Providers can function like many other international program providers: Many offer housing and meals, on-site orientations, and provide support to students throughout their stay in the country. But the primary goal of an Internship Placement Provider is to ‘place’ you with an internship in your desired field.

Do what you want to do.

These positions can be incredibly flexible, and fitted specifically to your needs. The discipline that you work in, the total duration of the internship, and even the weekly hours are subject to change based on your own unique interests and desires. The one drawback is that they are typically unpaid, and you pay a fee for your placement.

But don’t let that deter you! Interning abroad provides participants with incredibly valuable experience that goes beyond that of a typical job. Students get the opportunity to learn about the professional culture of their host country, work in international markets, and refine their foreign language skills. These internships can help participants develop a greater sense of independence, as well as provide them with the opportunity to improve their communication skills. The experience can also help students further distinguish themselves from their peers when applying for jobs down the road.

You don’t have to work full-time.

Even if a dedicated internship program isn’t something that appeals to you, there are still other options out there. In many study abroad programs, students are given the opportunity to do a part-time internship as a part of their course load for the semester. This way, students can gain international work experience while still getting to take courses and earn credit in their host country.

Dive deeper! Learn more about international internships by exploring the options available to you through Via, starting with some of our featured Community Members below!

Internships Down Under - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

Internships Down Under has been assisting international students arrange internships throughout Australia for over 10 years. Not only do they assist international students directly, but they’re also the placement provider behind many well-known student service companies throughout America and Europe. They arrange everything needed to ensure your experience is smooth, enjoyable and educational in one of the best countries in the world: beneficial internship placement in a wide range of fields, social meetings, accommodation, weekend trips and more.

Check out Internships Down Under on Via!

IES Abroad - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

IES Abroad, an academic leader in study abroad, has offered part-time internships at many of its international Centers for over 40 years. In 2013, IES Internships was formed in order to offer full-time summer internships in select IES Abroad international and domestic locations. Their internship programs create an unmatched global working and educational experience that defies the status quo for internships throughout the world.

Check out IES Abroad on Via!

Next up: The Other Twenty Percent

More articles here!

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Getting Into Gap Year

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He’s got some experience studying abroad….

After graduating from high school, most students lack the breadth and depth of experience necessary to really feel informed when making decisions about their future. College can become the default choice even when it isn’t necessarily always the right fit. At least, not right away. Sometimes, students would benefit from having some time and experience outside of the typical academic environment to gain some much-needed perspective.

This is where a Gap Year comes in.

Traditionally, a Gap Year has served as a transitional year between high school and college (but that doesn’t always have to be the case), where students are exposed to the world in a completely different way. It offers students a yearlong break from classroom assignments, and allows them to learn about the world through their own personal interactions with it.

One of the great things about Gap Year programs is that there are so many different types to choose from. You could promote youth education in Kenya, trek across the Himalayas, or even do a wilderness education program in Patagonia (let me know if you pick this one, I’d love to live vicariously through you).

Go beyond your comfort zone.

Despite the differences in format, many of the benefits of a Gap Year are the same. They all offer their participants a chance to be independent from both their parents and school. For many, this is the first time students are able to truly step outside of their comfort zone and do something totally new. The space and newfound perspective that can come from the experience gained from a Gap Year can be incredibly valuable in helping students decide on what they want their next steps to be. And whatever those next steps are, it also better prepares students for success in that area.

So if you’re looking for something amazing to do after finishing high school, then a Gap Year is probably for you. Check out some of our very own Via Community Members below!

Youth International - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

Youth International is an experiential learning program that combines rugged international travel, inter-cultural exchange, home stays with local families, volunteer community service work, and outdoor adventure. Teams of 14 young adults aged 18 to 25, along with two leaders, travel together for 3 months. Programs are currently offered in Asia (Nepal, India, and Thailand) and South America (Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands), with start dates in September and February. Through a balanced combination of experiences, team members are set up for an intense first-hand education about the region and also presented with a unique opportunity for self-discovery.

Check out Youth International on Via!

Where There Be Dragons - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

Founded in 1993, Where There Be Dragons is a leader in cross-cultural education. They run comprehensive 3-month Gap programs for students ages 18-22 in 17 countries in the developing world. They believe that the next generation of global citizens must recognize the interconnected nature of the world’s shared resources and work together to build a sustainable peace. By hiring the industry's finest experiential educators, each Dragons course offers Gap Year students the opportunity to authentically immerse themselves in an unfamiliar culture, engage in complex conversations about human development, resource management and social equality, and build the skills to participate in the 21st century as empowered global citizens.

Check out Where There Be Dragons on Via!

Next up: INTERNational

More articles here!

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Understanding Service-Learning

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

Service-learning… isn’t that just a glorified volunteer program?

No! But there’s a lot of people that see it that way, which is why this post is dedicated to helping you get a better grasp on service-learning, educational travel’s most widely misunderstood term.

A (Very) Brief History

Service-learning first rose to prominence in the 1980’s as a way to address the disconnect between traditional volunteering and academics. Since then, it has been widely adopted by US school districts, universities, as well as international program providers.

Despite its growing presence in international education, most students have a very difficult time telling the difference between a volunteer program and a service-learning one. Even well-informed travelers will often see it as being nothing more than volunteering for credit, when it’s really much more.

Not Just a Volunteer Experience

Service-learning combines volunteering with a structured, academic component in order to offer students the time to reflect on their experiences and the impact of their service. Students are encouraged to pursue a greater understanding of the context of their work, and to think about their place as volunteers. In this way, students can feel that they are benefitting from their experience and so do the communities that they serve, demonstrating one of the core values of service-learning: reciprocity.

By emphasizing reciprocity, service-learning tries to avoid the one-way street that volunteering can oftentimes be. In doing so, it offers a more complete experience to program participants, the organization that they volunteer through, and the community that they’re serving.

Now that you know what makes a service-learning program different from other volunteer programs, you can decide whether it interests you or not. If you think it could be a good match, then you should check out two of our amazing Via Community Members below!

ISA - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

ISA Service-Learning connects dedicated people looking to make a positive impact with over 20 diverse communities in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They’ve developed partnerships with over 100 non-profit, governmental, and non-governmental organizations worldwide that have identified needs and projects to which participants can contribute their time and strengths. They provide on-site staff and support to help participants reflect on their experience. By offering guidance and individual and group reflection exercises, their service-learning programs allow participants to observe how change is being affected in communities across the globe and to grapple with the complexities of real-world issues.

Check out ISA on Via!

CEA - Website -  [email protected] - [phone]

Want to make the world a better place while earning credits toward graduation? CEA’s Service-Learning programs allow you to make a difference and gain résumé-boosting skills abroad! Their Service-Learning programs combine rewarding volunteer placements with engaging classroom experiences in exciting locations like Dublin, Ireland; Barcelona or Seville, Spain; San Jose, Costa Rica; Port Elizabeth, South Africa; and Viña del Mar, Chile. Depending on your academic, personal, and career goals, you might work in an immigration center, school, urban garden, sustainable development project, sports program, or an organization that serves marginalized populations. CEA Service-Learning offers you the chance to change the world!

Check out CEA on Via!

IPSL - Website - [email protected] - [phone]

IPSL is a study abroad and service-learning organization that offers semester and summer programs, as well as a Graduate Degree in International Development & Service, for academic credit in "off-the-beaten" path locations. They’ve been offering these unique student experiences for more than 30 years and their alumni make up a vast network of service-oriented individuals. IPSL is built on reciprocal partnerships that allow them to provide creative, flexible and ethical programming. Their programs are immersive and challenge students to question assumptions and grow as individuals. Foreign language, community, service-learning, experiential education, practicum experience, and advocacy research are program cornerstones.

Check out IPSL on Via!

Next up: Getting Into Gap Year

More articles here!

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Beyond Filters, Part II

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

If you read my previous post, Beyond Filters pt. I, then you already know about how filters, despite their usefulness, can limit student exposure to certain international experiences. If you haven’t read it, click here to read Part One!

Last time, I touched on the value of using fewer filters, but what can be done to address its downsides? By applying fewer filters, students can end up overwhelmed with too many results. So just adjusting the way that filters are used isn’t enough. You have to go a step further.

Above and Beyond

At Project Travel, we want students to feel comfortable in their search, not paralyzed by the sheer amount of options that they have to choose from. Filters are simple in one sense, and limiting in another since they ONLY limit the search rather than present options that might be a great fit.

Students can have it all. Simplicity and choice.

How We Do It

Through Program Matching in Via, students create their own personal travel profile that has information about their interests, goals, and preferences regarding educational travel. Then, based on that information, Via presents a list of programs.

Upon searching, the nine most closely matched programs are presented in the first view of results. If need be, students can always expand that view or use the search bar to find particular programs. In order to help students make the right choice, the quality of each match is indicated by a percentage.

To provide these scores, we use our fancy-magic algorithm to rank programs based on how well they match the profiles that students have created in our system. We filter for things like traveler type (high school, undergraduate, recent graduate, professional, etc.) since, for example, a high school student wouldn’t be seeking a professional exchange.

Matching travelers to programs is a win-win. Travelers know that the programs they are viewing are personalized based on their preferences AND they are presented with options that are a good match for them that may have been eliminated by simple filters.

This empowers students to find programs that better suit their needs. And it’s why Project Travel is trying to go beyond filters.

Next up: Understanding Service Learning

More articles here!

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Beyond Filters, Part I

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

There’s no shortage of filters in the search for an international program. Filters are great, they’re an excellent tool for narrowing down the wide array of options that we have available to us. They simplify the search, and can eventually guide us to a great international program. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be careful about when we use them.

My International Program Search Story: Unfiltered

When I started looking for an international program, I hadn’t done any research beforehand. My primary resource was the program search tool on my university’s study abroad website.

The search tool itself was composed of over 15 different filters that I could apply to a list of programs. These filters let me set the criteria for my search under categories like location, subject area, and type of accommodation.

Using this, I set my location preference as Spain, chose a handful of subject areas that I needed credit in, indicated my interest in enrolling in courses at a foreign university, and hit ‘Search’. I was immediately provided with a list of 6 or 7 programs that fit my search, and began comparing different options. Within an hour, I had settled on a business program in Sevilla, Spain. In almost no time at all, I had already found my match. Praise filters!

The problem with this is that, if you’re anything like me, the search process is when you’ll be doing the bulk of your research on an international program. And if you’re using filters from the get-go, you’re already beginning your search having eliminated certain types of programs.

Because I had listed direct enrollment as something that interested me, I had narrowed my search down to nothing but study abroad programs without even realizing it. As a result, I only ever heard about study abroad experiences and none of the other amazing programs out there. Despite the simplicity they offer, filters had caused me to miss out on a valuable part of the search for an international program. And I didn’t even know it.

Building Something Better

How do you provide students with a more informative search process while still maintaining the efficiency and painlessness that filters offer?

One way would be to filter more intelligently.

Because filters are absolute in their function, they should only be applied in areas where students can be expected to have absolute preferences. For example, if a student says that it’s important for them to stay within a certain budget, the cost of any programs presented to them shouldn’t exceed it. But less important decision criteria shouldn’t have the same kind of effect on a program’s visibility.

By getting more results from their searches, students will be exposed to a wider variety of programs and will be able to make better decisions for themselves.

Read more in Part Two to learn about how Project Travel is reimagining search tools in international education!

Next up: Beyond Filters, Part II

More articles here!

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International Program Rundown

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

You want to sign up for an international program. You’ve set some goals. But now you’re stuck. How do you find a program that suits your needs when you don’t even know what your options are?

We’ve all heard about the three core international program categories: Study, Volunteer, and Intern Abroad, but what can we find by diving just a little bit deeper?

Here’s what I found…

Gap Year

A gap year can provide a much-needed break for those of us that need to take a brief step away from the world of traditional academics. These programs usually serve as a transitional year between high school and college, and have a focus on hands-on learning. Gap year participants could find themselves doing any number of things from volunteering on a farm in South America to trekking across the Himalayas.

The experiences that you get from a gap year can be transformational, and at the very least they can provide some of the time that you need to find what really interests you.

Gap Year Providers: Carpe Diem Education, Thinking Beyond Borders, Youth International

Service-Learning

Don’t get caught calling service-learning volunteering. It’s like calling a square a rectangle; you’re not wrong, but you’re also not done with your description. A service-learning program combines formal coursework with a service project of some kind. The idea being that you get to learn about the important concepts and theories around a subject in the classroom, and then apply and experience them through completion of the project.

This approach to service gives you a better opportunity to reflect on the impact of your work, and it also gives you a chance to get some course credit for your volunteer work.

Service-Learning Providers: IPSL, Global Volunteers

Teach English

Teaching English is a great way to get yourself abroad without having to spend much money on program fees. Most teaching programs provide housing for their teachers, and many teachers even get paid in the form of a monthly stipend.

The one box that you may have to check before doing an English teaching program is getting TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) certified, which can be done by completing either an online or classroom course. If you can’t wait to get out of the country, then there are some pretty neat TEFL courses that you can take while you’re abroad too.

English Teaching Programs: EPIK, CIEE Teach Abroad

Research

If you’ve got your sights set on graduate school, then there’s no better way to show that you can cut it in the academic world than doing some research. A lot of programs offer you the chance to work alongside professors at international universities, and some even provide funding for you to do it.

Research Opportunities: Fulbright, EURO Scholars

Wilderness Education

If an adventure is what you’re looking for, then why not go all out? Grab a backpack and some sturdy shoes, and experience international education in a totally different way. Through a wilderness education program, you could learn mountaineering techniques in New Zealand, how to rock climb in Argentina, and so much more! The best part is: In some cases, it’s even possible to get credit towards your degree.

Wilderness Education Providers: NOLS, IWLS

As you can see…

There’s a ton of variety out there when it comes to international programs. No matter what kind of person you are, there’s probably something for you. You just have to look for it (this might be a good place to start).

Next up: Beyond Filters, Part I

More articles here!

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Via Starter Tip #1: Invite Your Whole Team!

In your Via account, your Client Master (CM)* has ALL POWER to invite as many colleagues as they want.

Invite Your Team! (estimated time: 3 minutes)

Step One: Login to your Via Account

Step Two: Click on this link to invite colleagues individually or in a CSV upload (Note: you have to be logged in to Via for the 'step two' link to work!)

Why invite colleagues?

Once you've uploaded programs, Via will task you with reviewing, editing, & publishing each program. The more colleagues you add, the more hands you will have to complete this task. #sharethevialove

*Your CM is the person who originally created your Via account.

Not sure who your CM is? Email us: [email protected]

Feeling left out & need to create an account for your organization so you can share programs for free too? You can do that here. 

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Five Goals that I Had for My International Program

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

One of the most amazing things about traveling abroad today is that we have so many incredible options to choose from. You can volunteer in Costa Rica, take courses in Italy, or get an internship in Hong Kong, but what program is really right for you?

While it’s great to have all of these choices, the prospect of narrowing them down can be pretty intimidating. When I was preparing to study abroad in Spain, I used the goals that I had set for myself to guide my search for the perfect program.

Here are the five goals I set when seeking a study abroad program:

Learn Spanish

One of the driving factors for me wanting to study abroad was the desire to improve my Spanish. This led me to focus my efforts towards finding a program where I would have the best opportunities to practice speaking it. My time in Barcelona had taught me that not every city in a Spanish-speaking country is ideal for someone trying to learn the language. Because Barcelona is such an internationally connected city, many of its residents speak English, and they’re oftentimes just as eager to practice their English with you as you are to practice your Spanish with them. So I had to make sure that I was going to be in an area where English wasn’t as widely spoken.

Take unique classes that would still bring me closer to graduation.

When thinking about the coursework offered by my program, my first concern was that I wanted to take classes that I wouldn’t have the same access to at my home university. At the same time, I still had to make sure that I was making progress towards my Spanish and Economics majors. As a result, my search began with a list of programs with courses that had been pre-approved by my university. Then, between those, I tried to pick the program that offered the most interesting mix of courses that I could find.

Travel. A lot.

Another really important component of studying abroad for me was travel. I tried my best to find a program that would not just give me the time, but also access to the facilities to do it. I ended up choosing a program based in Sevilla in part because of the number of bus routes that ran from the city to other parts of the region, the train that ran between it and Madrid, and its proximity to an international airport. Admittedly, the airport wasn’t quite as connected as I had initially hoped it would be. It was oftentimes difficult to find direct flights to many parts of Europe, so make sure you do some research on the routes that run out of your airport before you begin your own journey. The other benefit to my program was that classes only ran from Monday through Thursday, leaving me with a long weekend every week to spend in a new place.

Make local friends.

Like most students studying abroad, I was really drawn to the idea of making local friends. Not only did this cause me to seek out a homestay for my living situation, but it also made me put a lot of effort into finding a program that offered some kind of exchange opportunity where you were paired with a local student. Coming into Spain through a program full of American students, it would have been far more difficult for me to have met locals without this sort of program, and it gave me a great opportunity to practice my Spanish and learn about the city’s culture.

Work with a local company.

Once I saw that getting international work experience was an option offered through a number of different study abroad programs, I began to play with the idea more and more. When it came down to the point where I was deciding between a liberal arts and a business program in Sevilla, Spain, it was the opportunity to do an internship that ultimately tipped the scales in favor of the business program.

By setting some goals for yourself for your international program, it allows you to set some criteria that will help you make a better decision about which one to choose. Even a short and sweet list like mine can get you some pretty significant mileage. As long as you take some time to consider the trade-offs that you may have to confront between many of your goals, your own list can be an incredibly valuable resource.

Next up: International Program Rundown

More articles here!

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“Not all who Wander Are Lost” but… A Little Direction Would Be Nice

Natalie M. Canfield, Director of Customer Development, July 2015

The J. R. R. Tolkien quote, “Not all who wander are lost,” is often heard in circles of people who love travel, learning, and forging their own path.

Wandering is great, but sometimes guidance is helpful.

Here’s a story about my path to and through college, how I ended up at Project Travel, and what we’re doing to give young ‘wanderers’ a little direction.

A Circuitous Path

I’m a first generation college student, and first in my family to graduate with a bachelor and master’s degree. My dad finished ‘some college’ and dropped out to get married and have kids. Obviously, a good choice because… well, there I am graduating from UCLA with a master’s degree. Thanks mom and dad!!

When I brought up the possibility of taking some time off after high school, my dad was really against it. To him, the idea that I would ‘travel’ or ‘get a job for a while’ or ‘explore my possibilities’ would put me on a similar path and I would never graduate. He was adamant that I go to college immediately after high school and more importantly that I graduate, which is what I did.

So how did I pick my college? Did I visit a bunch of schools and make sure I got that fuzzy feeling that it was the right fit?

NOPE! I got a piece of mail from a private Christian university in Texas that said, ‘Go Frogs’. I happen to love amphibians (because I’m a nerd).

It was as if this college KNEW about my love of amphibians. I was intrigued…

Now that I have 7 years of undergraduate admission counseling experience under my belt, I realize my name was purchased after I unknowingly ‘opted in’ to ‘Student Search’ through my PSAT test. It’s CRAZY to me to think that I ended up at a college because someone bought my information, but a lot of students find their school through that avenue.

Not a Great Cultural Fit: GREAT Learning Experience

I learned a TON from my first year and a half in college. Mostly, I learned (over and over) that I landed at the wrong college (for me). I ended up on a soul-searching mission at the beginning of my sophomore year, and explored my options....

Graduate early because I started with 47 credits from my local community college.

Find a study abroad program because I HAD to get out of Fort Worth.

Just leave.

Option 1 was completely OUT. I was miserable. The culture wasn’t a good fit, and I wouldn’t have been able to survive the three semesters that I still needed to graduate.

Option 2 was out since I was Pell Grant eligible, but had missed every scholarship deadline out there since I had no idea that people actually planned ahead to study abroad.

Option 3 wouldn’t work because despite my bad experiences, I still loved to learn and WANTED to graduate.

I had to find another way…

So, there I was… checking my mail one day and what do I see in our school newspaper? An ad for a semester-long program at Biosphere II in Tucson, AZ through Columbia University. It wasn’t study abroad, but I could use my financial aid, get a few more credits toward my early graduation, and I would be closer to home for a bit while I regrouped and figured out my next step.

Biosphere II was great and thanks to my geology TA, I found and eventually transferred to Prescott College.

Why am I telling you all of this?

I found my path because I got lucky… I was lucky that after a circuitous route of wandering, I found my place at Prescott College.

Because:

I had no idea where to start my college search.

I graduated from high school with enough credits to be  a sophomore in college, so I was already ahead of the game.

I love learning and new adventures.

I wasn’t ready to settle on a college

…I was a perfect candidate for a Gap Year Program.

Arguably, there probably weren’t as many Gap Year programs in 1999 as there are in 2015. But, what if there had been a way for me to explore possibilities that better suited me?

Options & Discovery: THAT is why I am at Project Travel.

‘Luck’ is not good enough in my mind. Project Travel’s software, Via, is a tool that I desperately needed. Via would have shown me what WAS possible and matched me with potential Gap Year Programs.

Would I have gone? Maybe… but at least I would have been informed on HOW to make it happen.

So, why am I writing an article about Gap Year Programs?

Project Travel has received over 800 programs (mostly for college students) from nearly 100 universities and providers to share with travelers in Via.

A TINY percentage of programs are Gap Year programs.

If we want to make Via an effective tool for helping students find programs, we need a balance of programs to share.  

It’s free forever and always will be to share your programs with travelers… Sign up in less than 3 minutes here: http://u.gopt.me/ViaAccountSignUp

Watch Program Matching in action: 

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Setting Realistic Expectations: Compromise is King

Our Business Development Apprentice, Cameron Lees has some tips & tricks to help you navigate the big, confusing world of finding the right educational travel program. Hint: He's got some experience studying abroad....

Being exposed to a new and unique culture brings all sorts of opportunities to develop your skills and grow as a person. But not all international programs are created equal. There are different perks and drawbacks for every program, and it’s up to you to decide what works best for you.

When you can’t have it all.

Let’s say that your two primary goals while abroad are to improve your Spanish and develop your professional business skills. While there’s nothing preventing you from pursuing both of these goals, they can oftentimes find themselves at odds with one another.

To really learn Spanish, you have to study in a Spanish-speaking country, there’s no way around it. And while there are internships available to non-native speakers in these countries, the responsibilities typically aren’t as sophisticated as what you might expect due to the language barrier. There’s nothing wrong with this, these internships offer you a great opportunity to improve your Spanish. However, if you consider the development of your professional business skills more important, it may be worthwhile to pursue an internship in a country where you speak the language fluently. But this option leaves you with no opportunities practice your language skills, so now you’re right back at square one.

So plan ahead...

This is why it’s so important to have some goals in mind before you choose your program. Further, you’ll want to know where each of these goals rank in terms of priority. That way when you consider the circumstances of your program, you’ll have a better idea of what kind balance you want to strike between your various goals.

And be prepared to compromise!

Having a short list of goals in mind for your time spent abroad goes a long way towards helping you decide on a program. But keep in mind the game of trade-offs that can emerge, and understand that you need to be willing to compromise on some things in order to find an option that suits you.

Next up: Five Goals that I Had for My International Program

More articles here!