Study Abroad Trickles Down to Teens

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  01.25.08 | 9:39 AM ET

leaningtowerPhoto by tom m. via Flickr (Creative Commons).

We posted earlier this week on rising interest in studying abroad among college freshmen. Well, high school students are close on their heels. In a sign that the teen market is also ripe for cross-cultural exchange, National Geographic has launched a new student travel program combining community service with lesson-oriented “assignments.”

It looks like a great opportunity—students can investigate global warming in Iceland or bullfighting culture in Spain, among other options. But I worry many such programs draw a narrow slice of relatively affluent students looking to round out college applications. National Geographic is offering scholarships to broaden their applicant group; it would be great to see others follow its lead.

 

Tags: Global Village, News and Briefs

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


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