Mission Statement

Our mission at Loop Abroad is simple: we want to give kids the experiences we wish we'd had in high school. We aim to provide a chance to explore global issues and get an idea of what careers in conservation entail, so that students can make informed decisions about pursuing that field in college and beyond. We strive to create programs that foster complex, independent thinking that is rooted in seeing world issues from the points of view of all stakeholders.

What makes us different from other programs? We don't waste any time. Vacations and tours aren't a waste of time, but they are wasteful when they're framed as educational trips. We don't spend every minute in the classroom, but the time we do spend is worth it. We focus on grad-school-style discussions: discussions led by students, informed by solid data and varied opinions, intended to question assumptions, and perhaps with no clear answers.

Our leadership curriculum is based in proven exercises to make our students better leaders in their schools and throughout their lives. Our interactions with the culture are meaningful, our explorations of wildlife are informed by experts. In short, our goal is to make everything we do authentic. To challenge students to think like leaders and question everything that comes their way. To prepare them with a new way of thinking that will enrich their work in any field they enter with passion.

We've worked for tours dressed as leadership retreats, vacations dressed as academic courses, service trips that felt inauthentic, programs that were different on paper than in person. Our mission, in short, is to leave all that behind. To give our students a real, cumulative experience that helps them question how they think and what they know at an integral time in their lives.