How to Fundraise for a School Trip Abroad: A Practical Guide for Students, Parents & Teachers
Learning how to fundraise for a school trip abroad is one of the most practical skills a student, parent, or teacher can develop before a program begins. Schools and families who approach fundraising strategically consistently close the gap between what a trip costs and what a family can afford. This guide walks through how to […]
Guatemala and Belize Travel Guide for Student Groups: Everything Educators and Parents Need to Know
Table of Contents Student travel Guatemala and Belize offers something most programs can’t: direct engagement with communities and ecosystems that look nothing like home. Students come home changed in ways that take months to fully understand. The difference comes down to how well the trip was planned. This practical guide to getting the most out […]
Beyond the Classroom: How a Somos Impact Travel Trip Transforms Students and Teachers
When we think about student travel, we often picture sightseeing and checking monuments off a list. But for the students and educators who recently journeyed abroad with Somos Impact Travel, the experience was about profound human connection, personal growth, and seeing the world through a different lens. Check out this inspiring 1.5-minute video with traveler […]
Tikal, Guatemala: What Decades of Guiding Have Taught Miguel Marín
A conversation with one of the site’s most experienced guides and a look at the ancient city he has spent his life explaining Miguel Marín has been guiding at Tikal since before the internet existed. In the late 1980s, when the only way to reach the ruins was by small plane or a long journey […]
The Complete Guide to Ecological Field Research for Students: What to Expect, How to Prepare, and Why It Matters
Everything students, parents, and educators need to know before joining a tropical field research program A student who has spent years reading about ecology in a classroom finds themselves standing in the rain, covered in mud, holding a bird they helped catch in a mist net thirty seconds earlier. At that moment, science stops being […]
Where Students Become Field Scientists: T.R.E.E.S. Belize
Inside the grassroots research station in central Belize where tropical ecology is the work Most people who visit Belize head for the coast. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef draws divers and snorkelers from around the world, for good reason. Yet some of the most ecologically rich and scientifically active work in the country is happening inland […]
Belize’s Biodiversity: Small Country, Extraordinary Natural World
A guide to the ecosystems, species, and conservation story that make Belize one of the most ecologically significant places in the Western Hemisphere Belize biodiversity is astonishing. The Central American country is roughly the size of New Hampshire and is home to a population of fewer than 500,000 people. It sits at the bottom of […]
Reforestation in Guatemala: The Story of Wellkind Guatemala
How one organization is combining indigenous land knowledge, conservation science, and community ownership to lead reforestation in Guatemala’s western highlands The western highlands of Guatemala are among the most visually stunning landscapes in Central America. They are also among the most ecologically stressed. Decades of deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, fuel-wood cutting, and land fragmentation […]
Actions Speak Louder Than Words: What Service Learning at Casa Guatemala Looks Like
Four travelers reflect on an eight-day impact adventure in Guatemala with Somos and Sage International School Casa Guatemala, the nearly 50-year-old NGO educating Indigenous Q’eqchi’ Mayan children on the banks of the Rio Dulce, welcomed a group of students, parents, and educators from Sage International School in Boise, Idaho this past April. Their itinerary included […]