How You Can Help the Next Generation of Responsible Travelers

Travel gives us perspective, challenges our expectations, and opens the door to new possibilities. It forces us to see the world and ourselves in a more profound way. I believe that it makes us better people. It gives us experience and understanding that you don’t get when you simply stay in your little corner of the world. It’s like that scene in Good Will Hunting when Robin Williams say to Will:

So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling.

Reading about something is one thing. Experiencing it is in real life is completely different. I know travel is no panacea. It’s not going to end hunger or bring about world peace. But it does give us perspective and experience. It gives us understanding and makes us more open. It teaches us possibility.

At a time when the world seems to be splitting apart, travel can at least give us a sense of understanding and community.

And that is why I created FLYTE, our community charity designed to give the gift of travel and education to young kids who grow up in places where that seems like a pipedream. Its mission is to expand their minds, show them that the world is full of possibility, and get them to dream big.

Today, I am announcing our next partner school!!!!

Travel has profoundly impacted the lives of the young students we’ve served.

Take Kaleb. He traveled with FLYTE to Mexico in 2016, and now he’s a sophomore at DePauw University studying political science and African studies. This past January, he took a trip study abroad to South Africa and is planning another one to Europe. As he says,

Traveling internationally better informed me not only as a young adult but as a global citizen. The experiences I have had traveling internationally during high school made me more competitive when applying for college and expanded my social consciousness. I can say that I now am more willing to interact with people of diverse backgrounds.

This why FLYTE exists and why I’m so proud of what we have accomplished together. Over 1,200 individuals have helped us grow FLYTE by spreading the word, volunteering, and donating to our fundraisers. We’ve sent close to 40 kids overseas and raised nearly $100,000 to make that happen.

So, I’m pleased to announce that after a long, rigorous application process, our next partner school is The Victor School from Victor, Montana!

Victor is a tight-knit community about 45 miles south of Missoula. The entire K-12 school system only has 300 students. Lindsey Egelston, the teacher who will be leading this trip, explains that in Victor, “poverty is high and higher education levels are low, and many of our students’ families struggle to make ends meet.”

In June, FLYTE will send Lindsey and her students to Guatemala for ten days, where they’ll navigate the cobblestone streets of Antigua, explore the villages along Lake Atitlán, ignite their taste buds at the Chichicastenango market as well as volunteer with local organizations.

Living so far outside a metropolitan area makes it hard for these students to interact with a diverse range of people. This trip is a chance for these students to see the world, experience new cultures, see the power of education, and see the possibility that exists beyond their small town. It’s a chance to spark an interest in the world and education.

Today, I’m asking for your help. As someone who understands the transformative power of travel, you know how much these experiences can change a student’s life.

I can’t send these kids on this trip without you. We’re trying to raise $30,000 USD for this trip. I’ll be matching donations up to $10,000 and any extra money we raise can be put towards future trips.

Please consider joining our FLYTE Crew monthly giving program and help provide the sustainable support we need to serve a greater number of students. If 100 people give $25 a month, we could fund this trip and additional trip this year!

Not ready to give monthly? A one-time donation still allows us to send the Victor School abroad. Select the one-time option to donate today.

I know this is a budget travel website and most of us don’t have a lot of money but for the cost of a few drinks, you can pay it forward and help great a new generation of responsible travelers!

• $10
• $25
• $50
• $100

$

• • One time
  • Monthly

NOTE: We are a 501(c)3 charity so your donations are tax exempt. (US residents only)

We at FLYTE want to create a more peaceful, tolerant world, where everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status, is empowered to live to their full potential. This starts with our youth and we want to serve more of them.

At a time when people are building up barriers, dictators and nationalism are on the rise, social media brings out the worst in us, it’s more important than ever we do what we can to counteract our worst impulses.

If you’re the type of person that believes love trumps hate, help us help these kids.

If you’re the kind of person that is looking for a way to spread the power of travel, help us help these kids.

Let’s pay all our travel kindness forward and send these kids from the small town on Victor to Guatemala.

Thank you!

— Matt

P.S. – We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how much trips cost and our program expenses. That information is now available on our website.

P.P.S. – Want to help us and expand FLYTE’s impact? If you know of teachers who would be interested in applying for funding, let us know. If you know people who would want to get involved, share this post. If you want to help us by volunteering or creating a personal campaign, email us! We’re a small organization still so we need all the help we can get!

Let’s Send Another Set of Students Abroad (Exciting Updates from FLYTE)

Travel is a powerful agent for change. It broadens our horizons, fills our lives with friends, gives us incredible memories, and (sometimes) helps us find purpose in our lives (at least it did with me).

Not everyone can travel and it’s a great privilege to do what we are able to do. Whether you saved up for a year, found work overseas, won a trip, or struck it rich buying Bitcoin, to be able to travel is to do something few in this world get to do.

Think about the first time you traveled overseas. Remember those feelings of freedom, possibility, and excitement? Remember what got you hooked and made you say “I need to do more of this!”?

Well, for kids, travel can be even more life changing than for adults, because it exposes them to different ideas, cultures, and people at a crucial developmental time in their life.

And, over the last few years, I’ve been focusing on trying to get more high school students overseas.

I remember the school group I met on my first ever trip abroad in 2003 and thinking about how lucky those kids were to have that experience. I remember meeting Conor and Carolyn, kids of my friends Dani and Craig, while in Bangkok. They were all on a year abroad and being homeschooled along the way. Now, as adults, they still view that trip as one of their most formative life experiences. It made them better people.

But not everyone has parents to take them on round-the-world adventures or send them to study abroad. Most high schools don’t have the resources to maintain their art and gym classes, let alone send students on trips outside their community.

Two years ago, I started FLYTE, the Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education, as a way to make travel and study abroad possible for those who lack the resources to do it on their own. Since then, we’ve run three trips: we’ve sent a class from Atlanta to Mexico; one from DC to Cuba; and one from Newburgh, NY, to Ecuador. And we’ve raised over $100,000 in donations to make that happen.

All told, we’ve helped send around 45 students overseas on educational trips, helping to create a positive impact on their lives.

And none of this could have been possible without YOU. Over 1,000 readers have helped get this organization off the ground!

So let me say right away: thank you, thank you, thank you! Like it’s amazing! More than me, the students, parents, and teachers of the schools you’ve helped are blown away by your generosity.

Today, I want to mention FLYTE again for two reasons:

First, we used the summer to make some improvements to the website and organization. We have a brand-new website that now features our past trips, a new volunteer program folks can join, and a new system that now allows for annual donations (yay!). Additionally, we’re now more active on social media, so follow us for updates on our students, teachers, news, and pictures from the student trips. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on our programs!

With interns and volunteers helping us out, the organization is moving forward. We’re going to have in-person fundraising events in early 2018, we’ve set a goal of applying for two grants per month, and we are reaching out for more corporate donations. In fact, we got an $11,000 donation from the Golden Rule Foundation! (Yay!)

We’re an organization on the move – and I wanted to share that with you!

Second, and perhaps more importantly, we’re now accepting applications for our next grant award. If you are a high school teacher in the United States and would like to take your students on an overseas trip, come apply for funding and let us help make that trip a reality!

As a school partner, some of our requirements include:

1. At least 40% of your students are receiving free or reduced-price lunches.
2. Your students are aged 14-18 and enrolled in high school at the time of the program.
3. All of your students are legal residents of the U.S.
4. You have support from your school administrators and leadership to take your students abroad.
5. You will be able to have at least three chaperones for your trip who will be able to pay or raise the funds for some or all of their expenses.

If you’re a teacher who would like to send your kids on an overseas trip, click here to learn more and apply. You’ll see more of our requirements and expectations there.

(If you are not a teacher but know teachers who might be interested, share tat link! Help us spread the word and reach more people and students.)

Finally, like all nonprofits, we work off of donations. During this giving season, let’s help kids experience the world and turn them into life long travelers and global citizens! The more funding we have, the more students we can send around the world.

You can do one time or reoccurring donations! You can click here to donate.

Moreover, if you sign up on a recurring basis, you’re helping to make a much more profound long-term impact by enabling us to fund trips to even more schools. Plus, you’ll also get the following benefits:

• Exclusive announcement of our selected partner school and destination before anyone else
• Quarterly newsletters with updates from our schools and partners
• Lifetime 25% discount on my guidebooks
• Members only access to follow along on the trip via photos and videos

To sign up, simply click here, select monthly and your desired donation amount. (Again, you can click here to donate.)

This summer, we sent a group of students to Ecuador. It had a profound impact on them – all because of FLYTE and how’ve you made that possible. Here’s a video of the students talking about their experience:

***In a time when everyone is closing their borders – physically and metaphorically, I think it helps teach kids there is a bigger world out there, there’s a real world application to what they are learning, and the world is full of opportunity. For kids who come from socially and economically depressed communities, this idea we take for granted is often a life-changing revelation.

In a time when everyone is closing their borders – physically and metaphorically, I think it helps teach kids there is a bigger world out there, there’s a real world application to what they are learning, and the world is full of opportunity. For kids who come from socially and economically depressed communities, this idea we take for granted is often a life-changing revelation.

So let’s change someone’s life – and the world – together.

P.S. – I’m hosting a meet-up in Bangkok on Christmas Day! Let’s grab drinks and talk travel. Details are TBD, but it will be held somewhere on Khao San Road. Follow the Facebook event for updates.