There have been posters around school and teachers talking about trips they are taking with students overseas. These trips are run through a company called EF Tours, where teachers can take middle and high school students to places all over the world. A few North Allegheny teachers have taken on this adventure to Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and more.
EF has worked with over 600 schools to facilitate over 200 tours in 115 countries. These tours can range anywhere from 7 to 11 days. EF provides mostly everything, so traveling is almost stress free. EF plans events and gives an itinerary. They will also book flights and all transportation needed. They will also have a tour guide that travels with the travelers for the entire trip, which EF also facilitates.
Teachers will travel with students as chaperones. There is also an option where one or both parents/grandparents can travel along. They will not have to chaperone. A group might also get paired with another school from anywhere in the United States. Groups will travel with each other everywhere, starting from landing and up until takeoff a week later.
Teachers can sign up on their website and get to pick one of these tours to take students on. EF pairs teachers with a Tour Consultant and an EF Experience Specialist that will help them to advertise the trip and to help with signups. They also will book flights, tour guide, activities, and hotels.
EF will handle all of the logistics and details to help the teacher, parents, and students have a great experience when they travel. They strive to help make everything run smoothly so that everyone can learn and get to relax on their trip. This is because while sightseeing is very important when visiting new places, one of the big things on these trips is education. EF wants you to learn about all of these new places that you are visiting. On EF’s website they prioritize sharing the message that,
EF’s goal with these trips is to have students and teachers get immersed into the culture of where they are going. They want to teach kids and teachers all about the places they go. Another goal of theirs is to promote sustainability. When you go on a tour they give you a backpack made of recycled water bottles. EF also tries to promote these ideas throughout where they visit on the trips.
There is a way where you can receive high school or college credits for going on these trips. For high school, students can complete a research project to earn 0.5 credits with no extra costs. They are tasked with creating a research question, then collecting data and evidence for it on their trip. Finally, they must create a video about what they learned on their trip and everything relating to their research question. For college, students can enroll in a 3 credit college course at Southern New Hampshire University, costing $360. They will create a bunch of activities relating to your trip for an entire semester following your trip. They will have to talk to your teacher about being able to complete these.
As regards to payment, EF offers different types of payment plans and multiple ways to pay. There is the option to either pay directly, set up an automatic payment plan, or manually pay at every deadline. With the automatic payment plan, you can pay the same balance every month or bi-weekly leading up to the tour. With the manual payment plan, there is a $100 fee in order to be able to do it. You will be required to pay a specific amount before multiple different deadlines leading up to the trip. EF also can create a donation page, where you can have family and friends donate to the cost of the trip for birthdays or holidays.
These costs end up covering many things, including the tour guide, transportation, and food. It will also cover local guides at the places that the group visits and all of the activities. This way nobody will have to worry about these things on the trip, so travelers will have money to spend on souvenirs and food.
So, how can someone learn about the available trips? There is a meeting in the spring that talks about all the events for the upcoming years. Teachers may also advertise for trips that they are going on. Only teachers are allowed to sign up for and select what trips to go on.
Going on these tours is a lot of fun and very cool to experience. I went on a middle school trip to Italy in spring break of 2024. You get to meet new people and make new friends. You also get to learn so much about where you visit and get to try so many new things.
