How to build maturity in your teen through summer travel programs

Maturity isn’t always easy to define, but it is certainly a trait we tend to notice the absence of. Maturity is not a matter of age, but instead, of how you choose to respond and react to various life situations.

A mature teen is someone who shows signs of certain characteristics, including a willingness to take on greater responsibility, a drive for independence, and having resilience in tough situations. 

Another indicator of your child’s emerging maturity could be wanting to start having new experiences away from family vacations and home life. As teens get older, they may want to start traveling on their own and visit places that really interest them. Here at The Road Less Traveled (RLT), we have a wide range of summer travel programs that support the personal growth of middle and high schoolers, and that can help further develop maturity in teens and tweens. 

If you are on the lookout for summer programs that develop maturity for teens, find out below how an RLT program could help your child to become a confident, independent, resilient and mature young person. 

Our programs enable your teen to problem-solve on their own 

If your child does join one of our teen adventure and service programs, it might be the first time they have been so far away from home and from parents. In the process though, they will get to take on a variety of challenges they must be able to solve independently, if they are to truly thrive as an adult. 

Life is full of challenges… as well as failures, disappointments, and difficult decisions. Whether your teen is learning to live in a new community of people, attempting to engage with locals in their own language, or trying to find their way through an unfamiliar location without being able to reach for their phone for directions, with us, they will get to do plenty of maturity-building problem-solving.  

Our programs present opportunities for your teen to engage with different cultures 

Is your teen more than happy to just stay in their home community each summer, with their existing friends, and regular routine? If so, time spent on the other side of the world on an RLT summer travel program could be an eye-opener for them. 

By immersing themselves in a culture that might differ significantly from their own – including supporting community service and conservation programs that help improve the lives of local residents – your teen will be able to truly broaden their horizons. This immersive experience often leads to reflection of students' own lives and helps them develop a more mature and global perspective of their way of life, and things they may have taken for granted. 

Our programs will help your teen see their wider place in the world 

Through participation in an RLT trip, your teen will be able to appreciate for themselves that they have much in common with people of different backgrounds to them. In the process, your teen will be helped to become a more mature individual who cares for humanity and the environment; an individual who believes strongly in meaningful service to the wider planet. 

To learn more about our trips that develop maturity for teens, including those with places still available for summer 2024, please don’t hesitate to schedule a call with an RLT director.