Introducing Schoolies with Impact
by juliette capomolla
If you're nearing the end of high school, you’re probably starting to think about that celebratory trip that every Australian student is entitled to! Where will you go? The Gold Coast? Byron Bay? Bali? Well, how about Cambodia, India, Thailand or Nepal?
2019 marks the beginning of an exciting new adventure for us here at Challenges Abroad Australia – it is the launch of our Schoolies with Impact challenges! These schoolies challenges are an amazing alternative to the traditional week that year 12 leavers often take. Instead, we are offering an immersive, challenging and fulfilling experience for you budding volunteers.
Given this is the first year that we are operating Schoolies with Impact, we thought we might answer some questions that you might have!
How are our schoolies challenges different to our normal volunteer challenges?
There are a few differences between our schoolies and our regular challenges. Because for many of you this might be the first time you're travelling overseas by yourself, our schoolies groups will all be accompanied by a trained leader 24/7. From when you meet at the airport upon departure until you arrive back home, this leader will make sure that the trip runs smoothly. All of our leaders will have already volunteered with Challenges Abroad before, so they're the perfect person to accompany you on your schoolies journey! You will feel comfortable knowing that you are not alone and will always have someone nearby that can help.
Where can you go?
We offer our schoolies trips to four of our destinations – Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and India. Whether you want to visit renowned Siem Reap or Chiang Mai, trek the Himalayas or feast your eyes on the Taj Mahal, our schoolies challenges are created just for you.
Each of our schoolies trips are structured so that you start your time in one of the major cities of your chosen country. You will discover some of the culture and history before venturing to our volunteering communities. After spending about a week volunteering, you will continue to explore the country for a few more days before returning home!
What will you do?
Schoolies with Impact is designed so that you can volunteer AND celebrate finishing year 12. This is why we take you exploring in the amazing destinations both before and after your volunteering! You deserve to celebrate such a momentous occasion and we want to help you do that. Whether that be experiencing the night life in Siem Reap or in Angkor Wat, our Schoolies with Impact trips are certainly not all work and no play.
Although, you are still signing up to do some work! Your volunteering might consist of teaching workshops to kids in English, IT, sport or music, or you could be helping to renovate a playground. Our trips develop and change every time according to the relevant needs of the community at that time and no two trips are the same.
This is the aspect of your trip that will be the most challenging. You'll need to push yourself out of your comfort zone as you deal with a completely new culture, learn to communicate through a language barrier and get used to amenities that aren't quite the same standard as here in Australia. But this is all part of the fun, and you'll find it incredibly rewarding when you're able to complete your volunteering project and form close bonds with the local community!
Additionally, before you leave on your trip, you will attend two character-building workshops. These are run by our partner Character Builders and will focus on your own personal development and leadership. We believe these are important not only for your schoolies challenge, but also as life skills that you'll be able to use at university and in the workplace.
How much will it cost you?
If you’ve already had a browse on our website, you will have probably noticed that our schoolies challenges are slightly more expensive than our normal ones. This is for a few reasons, so please do not be turned off by this!
The number one reason that they are a bit pricier is because it includes the costs of the flights. If you chose one of our regular challenges, you must book and pay for your own flights. With Schoolies with Impact, we book the flights for you so that you can all travel to and from the destination together with your leader. It’s all about making the trip as seamless and easy for you as possible!
When comparing these trips to a traditional schoolies experience, you’ve probably noticed it costs a little bit more. However, you have to remember that our trips are international and are naturally going to cost a bit more. But they are also longer than the traditional schoolies week, ranging from 10-14 days which means that for less than double the price of a trip to Byron, you could be going on a schoolies trip double the time!
So How do you convince your parents?
We know that many parents are not too keen with the schoolies phenomenon, which is what makes our programs more appealing! It is safer, more secure and you are guaranteed to have a rewarding experience while doing something good for a disadvantaged community.
Joining a Schoolies with Impact trip is an opportunity not only to celebrate finishing high school, but to better yourself and develop life-long skills to help your future - we think a lot of parents will be convinced by this!
Your parents will also feel more comfortable knowing that you have a trained leader with you at all times as well as 24/7 support while you're overseas. Based on this, we don't think it will be hard to convince them at all! By choosing our Schoolies with Impact trips, you are bettering yourselves and leaving a lasting, positive impact on overseas communities. You can have a combination of the traditional schoolies trip fun whilst volunteering and contributing to the global community.
For more information about each trip, click here.
