If you're wondering how to start traveling as a college student, you're in luck. ILP is all about volunteer trips abroad for college students (for a price you can afford).
Travel for college students and even traveling after college is being wildly popular ... and speaking personally, I can see why. I'm so glad there are more and more international trips for college students out there, because I would never trade what I learned abroad during those years for anything. And I'm so glad I found a way to do that affordably!
There are tons and tons of college travel opportunities — from study abroad programs to backpacking on your own with friends. If you're like me, you want something kind of in the middle. Which is why I loved volunteering with ILP. You can read all about an ILP semester here, but I loved that I was traveling in a group, had some of my semester scheduled but was still allowed to figure a lot on my own (like planning vacations). Plus, they have countries all around the world, so I could find a few programs that were the best fit for me.
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Because volunteer trips for college students are way different than taking your friends on a quick trip someone over spring break, you'll gain so much more ... I think the college trips abroad taught me all of these things (and more).
Skills You Need Before College
- Time management
- Be able to work well with others
- Being comfortable outside of your comfort zone
- Money management
- Problem solving
Time Management
Time management in college is essential. Between attending classes, doing homework, studying (and for many people) having a job ... it's exhausting. If your experience is anything like mine you will never feel like you have enough time in day.
After living abroad for a semester with ILP, you'll be a pro at this. Between lesson planning, teaching, commuting to and from school, spending time with your group and planning all your awesome vacations; you'll get the hang of it.
Luckily, learning to plan your time during your ILP trip is no where near as crazy as your college schedule will be, so it'll be an easier transition. You'll be volunteering 20 hours a week, so you'll need to balance your teaching/volunteering time with all the fun things you want to experience, and your responsibilities (like planning lessons or emailing friends and family from home). Traveling as a college student with ILP taught me time management without even realizing it, so I was set once I actually started classes at my university.
Be Able To Work Well With Others
Being able to work well with others in college (and life in general) is crucial right? You will be doing big group assignments that you will have to reply on each other for a good grade. You will have roommates that you might not love, but hey, you live with them. You might have coworkers that have different ideas and goals, but you'll need to work together.
While volunteering, you will be with the same group of people the entire time. There's not a better situation to learn this skill than traveling abroad with someone! You guys will be traveling, teaching, and in most cases, living together, which means you'll need to figure out how to get along and make the best of the situation, even if you aren't best friends with everyone around you at the time.
College service trips also give you the chance to look outside of yourself and find ways to help around your community, your school, and just the other groups of volunteers. It's an excellent skill you'll not just want while in school but through your whole life.
Being Comfortable Outside Of Your Comfort Zone
Being independent requires you to be comfortable doing things outside of your comfort zone (or at least be willing to do them). At college, you won't have your parents there to make that uncomfortable phone call or talk to your teacher for you. Living in a foreign country will stretch you in ways you didn't think you needed to stretch and will only make being independent from your parents that much easier.
An awkward phone call will be nothing for you after living in a country full of people that don't speak the same language as you. You'll gain so much independence and confidence during your semester that you'll be set for college. See why I'm such a fan of college travel?
Money Management Through College Travel
Part of being an adult is understanding how to be responsible financially. While in college or living abroad, you will be responsible for your spending habits. Learning to manage your money while on on a semester abroad with ILP is a lot easier because you don't have to think about things like rent, food, etc. You will learn to budget your spending money so that it stretches far enough for you to go on all those awesome vacations while still having some extra money to go shopping with.
It will also teach you how to travel on a budget, in a way that you can't just learn on a quick college vacation. I'm glad I was able to learn how to manage my money for the whole semester long which was kind of a good way to practice how to make my money last all school semester.
Problem Solving
You won't find a better way to do that than living abroad and not speaking the language. I mean, when your toilet is broken and the repairman doesn't speak English, you get pretty creative.
While you'll have a support system with your Head Teacher and your ILP group, you will still need to find ways to problem solve. There's just something about traveling as a college student that'll help put things into perspective and realize that you can overcome some problems if you put your mind to it.
Wondering where to travel after college (or during school?)
Whether you want to go abroad before, during, or after school, we think volunteering with the International Language Programs is the perfect fit! We have volunteer trips for college students all around the world — come see where you can spend a semester.
