Speaker 1: I will never forget walking through the streets of Madrid, just stumbling along different restaurants and shops and dancers and festivals and just experiencing a completely different culture than what I was used to. This was me studying abroad. So I was fortunate enough to have that experience. I spent six months in Spain and traveled a ton. So not just Spain, I went to, I think it was like 12 countries, but either way, the study abroad experience really shaped who I was from there forward and gave me a completely different perspective in so many ways. So when it comes to studying abroad, believe it or not, there are tons of opportunities, not just for college students, but for high school students as well. And so in today's video, I want to share with you five of the best programs for studying abroad, specifically for high school students, since that's a little bit less known than those for college students. I'm also going to share with you how we could possibly get some scholarship dollars for this experience. Now make sure you hit subscribe because every single week we release a new strategy to help your student work towards that debt-free degree. And you might be thinking how can study abroad impact that, but stick with me because I will show you how this can possibly lead to more money for your student. Hey there, my name is Jocelyn Pearson, founder of The Scholarship System, where we redefine paying for college to help families build strong financial futures rather than ones buried in debt. And so we combine tons of different strategies to get there, but one of our primary strategies are scholarships. But that said, we can combine it with a lot of different things and study abroad is one of those things. So before I get into how we could possibly pay for this and where the best programs are, let's talk about why students can study abroad or should consider studying abroad. Now this might not be for everyone. Some students have no interest in seeing the outside world, but that said, there are a lot of benefits to this. First off, it is going to offer just a completely different point of view, different from what any student has experienced in their own country. It's language immersion. So that is, if you leave the country, you will see that a lot of people in other countries speak multiple languages versus in the United States where a lot of people only speak English. So that language immersion, which also leads to being more valuable long-term for an employer if we have experience with multiple languages. It can increase competitiveness. I mean, showing this on our applications can definitely increase their chances of being admitted into certain schools and also increase their chances of being selected as a student for a scholarship recipient. Also a lot of these programs are service oriented. So that is giving students service experience abroad, which can be really impactful. It can give them those service hours, which can definitely lead to some scholarships. In fact, I have another YouTube video on three ways to volunteer so that it can lead to more money. So we'll link to that in the description or you can find it somewhere here. You can open it up in a new tab and check it out after this video. Now the other thing when it comes to studying abroad, a benefit is that employers love this. When I was applying to the corporate world for internships and for jobs, they always, always owned in on my study abroad experience. I think first, because a lot of companies are international these days, they're not just based locally. Secondly, studying abroad, the ability to study abroad just teaches you to adapt and to manage yourself and your experiences and situations where you don't know the language. So your students will learn so much by being abroad about themselves, about the world, about how to be an adult. So a lot of companies love this if they know that if a student studied abroad, they're going to have a certain kind of perspective and really maturity that some students may miss out on by not studying abroad. And last but not least, study abroad. It's fun. Students will meet friends that they will keep for probably the rest of their life. In fact, I have friends now all over the world because of my study abroad experience. In fact, crazy story quickly, I ran into a friend from a decade ago that I studied abroad with in a small Caribbean island in a parking lot, which is just absurd. But that said, when students study abroad, they will make lifelong friendships with people from all over the world, which is of course only a good thing. Now, before I get into the programs, when it comes to paying for this, students can find out through, if they're at a university, if they're a college student, there typically is a study abroad office where they can learn about scholarship opportunities. But we have a full training on how to search for scholarships. And so one of the things that students can do is actually ask a committee if they can use the money for studying abroad. So that's always something if you want to check out our free training on where to find these legitimate scholarships. You can find the link in the description or go to thescholarshipsystem.com slash free training, or you can click also somewhere here on the screen, it should be popping up. Now comment below, is your student considering a study abroad option? If so, where are they interested in going to? Which country? Maybe someone else will see a country that their student is going to and you can connect or even just learn about different program opportunities. Okay. So that said, let's go ahead and get into the specific program. So I have five for you today. The first one is International Cultural Exchange Services, ICES. This is a very popular one. They do have some of the best high school study abroad programs around, and this is actually a nonprofit organization that is official J1 sponsored through the US Department of State. It's certified in many different ways, but through ICES, high school students can explore just a range of programs. They handle pretty much everything that your student will need from arranging accommodations, school placements, flights, medical insurance, emergency support, and so much more. So this is nice because it's kind of an all-in-one sort of deal. Now the second program is the Council on International Educational Exchange. So this organization has actually been around for more than 70 years, seven decades. So they've been around the block a time or two. Now they provide different options for internships, summers abroad, semesters abroad, gap years abroad. So all different kinds of lengths of time, different kinds of purposes of this experience, and they're also in over 50 countries. So lots of options here. Students can focus on language learning if that's what they want, allowing students, they allow students to fully immerse themselves, to really speed up that language. I will say from experience, when I moved to Spain, I did not speak a lick of Spanish. It was horrible, but by the time I left, I actually was dreaming in the language. It was really incredible, and that's because of that full immersion. So I had taken years of it through school and really didn't retain anything, but throwing me into it, I finally got to where I could hold my own. I could survive. We wouldn't say I'm fluent. Now the third one is Rotary Youth Exchange. So Rotary clubs, they are everywhere. In fact, they're in over 100 countries. I'm not sure if you knew that they're not just in the United States. So this gives high school students a chance to explore different cultures, learn language, and really become global citizens, which is so important these days. Now they have even long-term exchanges that can last for full academic years, but also short-term options that range from a week to a few months. Now room and board is typically handled, but in this program, students will have to handle their own airfare, travel documents, travel insurance, spending money. So you will want to make sure, actually with really all of these programs, that you're truly understanding the full cost of this and sitting down with your student and creating that budget and that full understanding of what are we looking at here. Now you may find, going back to that debt-free degree I talked about earlier, you may find that this saves money compared to college, but it does require you to sit down and really look at all of the costs involved. Now the fourth one is pretty cool. It's the National Geographic Student Expedition. Now this is neat because they have different focuses for the programs. They can spend the entire summer and join them in a specific field. Some of the fields are cultural geology, technology, tropical biology, lots of ologies, but they can really focus on an area that might interest them and it may help them narrow down what they want to be or what they want to do. A lot of the program also focuses on photography, so if your student enjoys that, this can really give them the opportunity to own in on those skills. Now the fifth one is the MEI International Academy. Now this has a wide array of countries, semester abroad programs, and they really offer exceptional academic experiences. So MEI actually carefully plans a journey for students and immerses them in different cultures, and in many cases they actually can visit multiple countries. So this is great for students that don't want to just go to one place, they are interested in traveling around a little bit and seeing different cultures, different locations, what have you. So we chose that one because that really is unique, being able to hop around, and that can be beautiful. Also staying in one spot can be beautiful because students can get a little bit more deeply immersed. So again, all of this, I'm just giving you some options that you and your student can see what is best for us. How long do we want to go, where do we want to go, do we want to focus on language, do we want to focus on a career path? So there's lots of decisions to be made here, but hopefully this helps you narrow down the options a little bit so that you know which ones are reputable, and then you can choose all of those options from there. So that said, study abroad, it's not for everyone, but it can be enticing to many students, especially since COVID shut us down and now we're back up able to travel again. But this is such a great opportunity for students for language skills, independence, experiencing different cultures, opening up our mind and understanding different people and differences and immersing ourselves. So I am a big fan of study abroad, and like I mentioned, the benefits are not just the travel, it is also great for internships, for jobs, for interviewing, also can be an excuse to see the world while becoming more competitive for more money. So again, that said, if you are looking for scholarships, make sure you check out that free training I mentioned in the description, and make sure you hit subscribe because this is just one of the many strategies that we've shared with our families to work towards a debt-free degree. All right, I'll see you in the next video.