Windsor Mountain Student Travel

Grades 8-12

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In the summer of 2008 Windsor Mountain Student Travel continues a strong tradition of over 40 years of international student travel with our Bridge programs. The goal of these programs is to build lasting ties of friendship and understanding between people of different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds, and to teach our students to travel with a mindful, global perspective. Each program is guided by the fundamental Windsor Mountain values of risk, respect, and responsibility, and draws from the following curriculum components to achieve ambitious educational goals:

Intercultural and Friendship Exchange: The backbone of Windsor Mountain Student Travel.  Our students make new friends, see new places, eat new foods, and experience new ways of living and thinking through formal and informal interactions with people from their host countries. We teach our students to give freely of themselves, with the hope that they will learn first-hand the benefits of approaching a new culture with an open heart and mind.

Community Service Learning: Learn by doing! Community Service Learning takes the spirit of volunteerism one step further by harnessing the boundless energy of our students and channeling it into meaningful work that serves vital community needs. By sweat and toil, our students learn the Windsor Mountain concept of hard-working fun, and accomplish more than they ever dreamed was possible.

Leadership Development:  Many of our programs allow students to design and implement creative programs for local children in a variety of communities, while honing leadership and teaching skills. For students interested in a possible future in teaching or leadership, Windsor Mountain Bridge programs offer the chance to test their mettle in real live teaching situations.

Wilderness Adventure and Environmental Awareness: At Windsor Mountain we strive to instill in each of our students the concept of  ‘environmentality’. This idea implies a mindful worldview, in which each individual understands and accepts responsibility for treating the beautiful planet that we call home with love, respect, and kindness. We teach students the joy of being outdoors, strengthen their awareness of the cycles of the natural world, and challenge their perceived personal limitations with fun outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, canoeing, surfing, snorkeling, and rock climbing.

Language Immersion: Classroom study can only take language skills so far—the next step is to plunge headfirst into the unknown! Surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of native speakers, our students jump the learning curve by being placed in situations where they have to speak for themselves. Nothing beats this approach to language learning. With just a little effort and a willingness to give it a shot, our students have the potential to return home with vastly improved conversational skills that will amaze their families, teachers, and friends.

Performing Arts:  Music, dance, theatre, and visual art unite people from wildly divergent backgrounds in a celebration of the creative human spirit. Singing songs and making plays have been at the heart of the Windsor Mountain experience since the founding of our International Summer Camp in 1961, and we can think of no better way to cross cultural boundaries than to sing, dance, and laugh together.

Take risks!
Each Bridge program is designed with attention to safety, care, and detail. The program itinerary serves as a vehicle for exploration, rather than a list of tasks that must be accomplished. A hallmark of our approach to student travel is the freedom we allow our leaders in making spontaneous changes to any given itinerary in response to the daily needs of the group. We give our leaders authority to add or remove activities based on opportunities as they present themselves. Some of the most magical moments on these programs are those that cannot be planned ahead of time, and are created on the fly by our students and experienced trip leaders. It is essential that each group member embrace a willingness to explore, discover, and learn. At Windsor Mountain, taking a risk means more than doing physical things like bungee-jumping or whitewater rafting or rappelling, it means taking the first step into the unknown, and embracing the exploration of uncharted territories, be they physical, mental, or emotional.

Learn respect.
At Windsor Mountain, we strive to honor the thoughts, feelings, and contributions of each individual that becomes a part of our community. Together, a group of Bridge students and their leaders create a mini-community that travels and interacts with many different larger communities during the course of a program. These interactions have at their foundation this idea of mutual respect: leaders for students, students for leaders, students for one another, and above all else, the respect of our students for the peoples and cultures that they encounter. As ambassadors of friendship and good will, we believe that this respect is the first step in establishing positive and lasting worldwide relationships.

Become responsible.
Traveling with a group means living with a group, and contributing proactively to the day-to-day work that keeps a group operating smoothly. Group living includes things like cooking, cleaning, shopping, navigating, planning activities, packing and unpacking vans, and keeping an eye on one another in the name of safety. Sometimes group living involves putting in the extra effort to help a fellow group member complete a task, or taking on additional tasks simply because they need to be done for the good of the group. On a Bridge program, responsibility means not only maintaining personal integrity, but also adopting a group-first attitude in all things.  For some students this will come easily; for others, this might involve a total restructuring of personal priorities to meet the demands of group living. Either way, living and traveling with a group creates new opportunities for self-awareness and personal growth.

Enjoy a simple lifestyle.
Windsor Mountain students live and travel simply. Everything necessary for complete participation in our programs can easily fit into a travel backpack and daypack (book bag). Many of our students are amazed when they learn that they can carry their whole life on their back! Our program specific packing lists level the playing field, and ensure that all students begin their summer experience on equal footing. Our accommodations are equally practical: some groups spend a majority of their itinerary staying in campgrounds, living in tents, cooking on propane stoves, learning that a good tent can be a comfortable home in any environment, as long as it is properly set up and responsibly maintained. Other groups may stay in youth hostels, school dormitories, in houses with families during home stays, or in some cases, hotels. This commitment to simplicity is an important part of the overall experience of a Bridge Program. Our goal is to teach students that fancy hotels with room service are nice, but they are basically the same everywhere! We want our students to experience each culture from the ground level, without relying on the creature comforts of home.

Leadership.
Windsor Mountain trip leaders are positive role models, fundamentally committed to the safety of each group and the personal development of every student. All of our leaders are:

~ Professional educators with extensive teaching and cross cultural experience

~ At least 23 years old, with the average age of 29

~ Intimately familiar with their destination country or region

~ Required to hold current Red Cross certifications in First Aid, CPR, and life guarding (if their program has a backcountry element, they are required to hold a current Wilderness First Responder Certification)

In addition to these basic safety skills, our leaders are all excellent teachers and group facilitators. They nurture understanding and carefully guide students through a complex series of interpersonal and cross cultural experiences. Windsor Mountain has an exceptional reputation in the field of experiential education, and our leaders serve as our primary representatives. We consider these leaders to be our greatest asset, and take the hiring process very seriously. And we don’t stop there! We require our leaders to undergo thorough pre-trip training, which we consider to be our trump card, without equal in the field of experiential education: while it is customary for a student travel organization to hold a two to four day leader orientation, Windsor Mountain Student Travel holds an intense two-week leader training program at our home base in Windsor, New Hampshire.

Non-negotiable rules
Our extensive experience in student travel and group development has led to the creation of the following three rules, which we call the non-negotiable:

Use or possession of any tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, possession and/or use of illegal drugs is forbidden.

Unauthorized and/or unexcused absence from the group is forbidden.

Exclusive relations with another person are forbidden.

Following these rules is an inflexible condition of participation in a Bridge Program. If these rules are intentionally broken, a student may be dismissed from the program.

What Next?
Call us or email us today! We are always happy to talk with you and answer any questions you may have about any of our Bridge Travel Programs. We look forward to hearing from you.

Phone: 404-549-9197

email: angus@windsorMountain.org

If you would like to apply on-line, or want to download an application, click here.