If you’ve experienced student travel, you know that it has a significant impact on kids. But did you know that some of the benefits stay with students throughout their lives? By adding a hands-on element to lessons and introducing students to new places, the influence of educational tours can be long-lasting. Here are just a few examples of the long-term benefits:
1. Fostering Independent Learning
No matter where students go on their educational tours, there’s one thing they always discover: Learning doesn’t stop outside of the classroom. In fact, 86% of adults who traveled educationally as youths said that it made them more intellectually curious outside of school.* From taking in a Broadway show to meeting scientists at museums, you never know what will spark a student’s interests.
2. Expanding Worldviews
The best part of going out of your comfort zone? It brings you into someone else’s comfort zone. With travel, kids discover the lifestyles, cultures, and infrastructures that exist outside of their local communities. Former students not only say that travel opened their minds up to new possibilities, but they also say that it made them “more tolerant.”
3. Increasing the Likelihood of Going to College
One of the most eye-opening findings we’ve come across is that, regardless of socioeconomic class, gender and ethnicity, students who travel with their class are 24% more likely to go to college. While this is pretty significant, we’re not shocked – after all, we already know from experience that student travel does wonders for igniting educational passions and opening up new worlds.
4. Inspiring Career Choices
When we ask educators about the rewards of leading a tour, many tell us about former students whose career choices were affected by their trip. Studies show that this is true for more than just one or two students; a whopping fifty-two percent of individuals who have participated in educational travel said that their career choices were influenced by their tour.
5. Exploring Independence
For so many students, an educational tour is their first travel experience without their parents. This is kind of a big deal. Tours provide students with a safe environment to try out mature tasks like budgeting cash and meeting at appropriate times. Many students look back at educational tours as a positive step on their paths to independence and adulthood.
While these benefits hold true for many people, every student experiences something different during educational travel. What are some ways in which you or your students benefited from student travel?
*Statistics in this post come from a 2013 study by The Wagner Group.
Ready to start planning your inspired student tour?
