Summer Programs that Build Confidence and Resilience
Unlocking Potential Through Teen Travel and Service
What does a summer program that helps build confidence and resilience in teens look like? Imagine a summer filled with new cultures, meaningful service work, exploring new places, and transformative experiences with new friends. Our summer programs are designed to unlock teens’ potential by building confidence and resilience through travel and service.
The Importance of Confidence and Resilience in your child
Confidence and resilience are essential traits that help us navigate life's challenges and seize opportunities. Confidence allows teens to believe in their abilities, take risks, and pursue their goals. Resilience, on the other hand, equips them with the mental strength to overcome setbacks, adapt to change, and keep moving forward. Together, these traits form the foundation for success and navigating some of life’s challenges and are core skills for teens to develop.
How do we do this on RLT trips?
Our programs are specifically designed to foster these vital qualities through a variety of enriching experiences:
1. Through Challenging Adventures
Our travel programs take teens out of their comfort zones and into new and exciting environments. Whether it’s hiking through the mountains of Iceland, navigating the waters of the Nordic fjords, or climbing the peaks of the Alps, these physical challenges help teens push their boundaries and discover their inner strength. Overcoming these challenges builds a deep sense of accomplishment and self-assurance. We talk to teens about goal setting at the start of the trip, and how they attribute success, which all leads into building their self esteem.
2. Through Impactful Service Projects
Engaging in community service projects provides teens with a sense of purpose and achievement. Being part of a project, such as building a community infrastructure in Costa Rica, or organizing health check ups in the Dominican Republic, requires planning, teamwork, and problem-solving. These situations are hard, and will challenge students. Being part of these projects boosts confidence and teaches resilience as teens navigate obstacles and find solutions. Overcoming challenges on trips allows students to realise what they are able to achieve, which plays a huge role in developing their resilience.
3. Through Cultural Immersion
Living and working in different cultural settings helps teens develop a global perspective and their adaptability, empathy, and flexibility. While traveling with RLT, it may be very different to how they live back home, they may encounter differences in access to education, healthcare, or human rights, there may be language barriers, or different foods or traditions. These experiences teach teens to appreciate diversity and adapt to new situations. These are key components of resilience. When things get hard, our leaders are there to support students, while also empowering them to manage these challenges on their own.
4. Through ongoing Mentorship and Reflection
Our experienced program leaders provide continuous mentorship, guiding teens through their journey and helping them reflect on their experiences. This mentorship supports personal growth, helping teens understand their strengths, address their weaknesses, and build both confidence and resilience. Our small group settings allow students to have a tight knit community where they can show vunerability, ask questions, have deeper conversations, and share their own growth with their new friends. This again, plays a big part in students growth while on an RLT trip.
Bringing Confidence and Resilience Home
The skills developed during our programs have a lasting impact, and we often hear from parents how their kids have changed following their RLT trip.
Teens often return home with increased confidence, ready to tackle academic challenges, tough social situations, or take on leadership roles in extracurricular activities. Their ability to approach new tasks with self-assurance can lead to improved performance and a willingness to explore new interests.
We also hear about their improved coping strategies that help teens manage stress and bounce back from setbacks. Whether it’s dealing with a tough exam, handling social pressures or conflict, or navigating family dynamics, the resilience learned during our programs enable teens to stay positive, flexible and persistent.
Many of our students also share how they became more comfortable making new friends, joining social groups, and standing up for themselves. They develop stronger relationships with their existing friends and have a network of new RLT friends from all across the country too!
Join Us on The Road Less Traveled
At The Road Less Traveled, we are dedicated to empowering teens through travel, service, and cultural immersion. Our programs are not just about students exploring new places—they’re about discovering new strengths within themselves.
We would love to chat with you and your teens about how you could get involved for summer 2025. Schedule a call with us to learn more!
