Global Leadership Adventures (GLA)

My name is Leia and I am currently a senior in high school. Over the summer break me and my family decided to enroll in a volunteer organization abroad with Global Leadership Adventures. I enrolled in the three week summer program called Ghana: the Children of Africa. The volunteer mission of the trip is to learn how to build bricks to organize a new school for the education field in Ghana. As students we also went to local primary schools to teach children academic subjects such as Math, English, and science. We were each assigned a partner to teach the primary students at the two different schools.

During the three weeks we wake up to eat breakfast at 7:00 and then we leave to visit the school for brick making at 8:00. We were split into two separate mentor groups to perform the brick making and organize meetings. It was a fun and playful competition about who could make the more and higher quality bricks. We gathered the materials such as shovels, buckets, and cement. We mixed the dirt and cement with water and put it into the brick container. Then we lay the container on the ground to form the brick. After the brick making, we traveled to the schools. I love the children because they were very warm, welcoming, and friendly. My partner and I came up with lesson plans to read English stories to them, multiplication and division problems, and living vs nonliving in science. I loved playing rock paper scissors, duck duck goose, and drawing with them.

I had a wonderful experience with the local staff, international staff/mentors, and most importantly meeting new students from around the world to appreciate Ghanaian culture. I loved the cultural activities such as learning the drums, participating in Ghanaian dance moves, cooking red red and fried plantain with the chefs, getting my hair braided, high school cultural exchange and visiting a local church. I loved having dance parties at night with my peers. I deeply enjoyed the high school cultural exchange because we played games and sports and it was fun to interact with students my age. I still speak to some girls I met in Ghana. It was amazing to engage with the cultural traditions and celebrate. One of the reasons I chose the Ghana program is because my parents and family are from Jamaica. Jamaica and Ghana have a very close history and way of life such as food and social customs.

I love Global Leadership Adventures because of the values they teach to the students about how to become a leader. Global Leadership Adventures is very passionate about how a leader doesn’t always have to be born but can always be made. Every day on the trip there were one or two leaders of the day and we would wear necklaces, direct the cultural activities, make announcements, write a journal entry of the day and more. It is crucial to build up the confidence and find the leader inside of you. It was fun to engage in the mentor groups and talk about how we were doing and participating in social activities. I also loved the full group meetings because of the bond we shared and learning about different strategies to be a leader.

Prior to this trip I did not see myself as a leader but the experience, support, and independence I have gained has increased my confidence and self- value. I highly recommend Global Leadership Adventures to any student because the program was life-changing and an experience I’ll never forget.

I absolutely loved doing the Medicare and Healthcare Discovery program through GLA. The entire experience is one I will never forget for the rest of my life. I chose this specific program because I am interested in healthcare as a future career option. One of my favorite memories to look back on from this trip was when we spent two days in the Nursing Home and got to know a few of the patients there. I spent a half hour talking to an old man one of those days, and got to know his life story, and this experience stayed with me fondly. The culture that I experienced within the two weeks was incredible as well. From the food, to learning about Costa Rican slang, and even interacting with the little children and people we helped was an amazing experience. Another part of the trip that I loved was getting to meet new people. I still keep in contact almost every day with some of the people that I met, and programs like this one where interaction with others on the trip with you really fostered the environment for making new friends. Although they took phones most of the day, I thought it was nice to get a break and get a chance to talk to new people. Another thing I was nervous about coming onto this trip was the food. As someone with a severe gluten allergy, I wasn't sure if I would be able to be given three meals a day safely. However, I was pleasantly surprised when separate food was set aside for me at every meal, and I was always taken into consideration at any meal or food stop, which was very nice.

Before my trip I was nervous, but by the first full day, I was so glad I went! My group connected quickly, and we all built our teamwork skills early on when we worked at Rancho Primicias and helped clear land for Giant Tortoises. We painted a mural at a school, which turned into a bit of a paint war, learned salsa from some very patient and kind professionals (we then proceeded to break out into salsa dancing every spare minute we got), and snorkeled with sea lions! Our guide Wilson taught us to dive for sand dollars and toss them to the sea lions, who would then play with them and balance them on their noses! In the evenings we did leadership activities, and had a mock debate about a real issue in the islands, and often broke into smaller groups to have meaningful discussions led by our mentors. The downsides for me were that I felt some social exhaustion from being around so many people all day every day, doing activities without many breaks, and I didn't like a lot of the food. There's only one option, so if you don't like it, that's it. I brought some snacks from home, so that helped, and the mentors did a check-in after the first week where we could put in any requests we had. However, what they can do is limited. Be ready to try lots of new foods and eat them even if you don't like them. Despite and also because of these issues, I feel that I grew as a person, a friend, and a leader. Several months later I am still in touch with my roommates from the trip, and will always remember the meaningful lessons from my mentors, who were incredibly supportive and welcoming.

I made a lot of friends that I’m still in contact with and found out about different cultures throughout those friends. I loved the Galapagos and it’s surroundings it was a wonderful destination. The staff and the locals we were in contact with were super nice and understanding. I really felt at ease even with my language barrier and all the staff and students were super supportive. The food was really nice and I felt safe throughout the whole travel. I felt secured because everything was planes in advance a we had access to the itinerary so we knew what to expect. I a 100% recommend travelling with GLA. It’s a must experience to do at least once.

I had the best time on this trip. I learned so many things not just about global health but about independence and leadership. From the moment everyone started talking in the airport before our connecting flight to the Dominican i knew that we were going to have a great time. Our mentors did a great job with getting to know everybody and coming up with activities for everyone to do. Even though we didn’t have any ac and had misquote nets over our beds i wouldn’t have changed anything about the trip. There is very little time spent without something to do, you are do anything from medical brigades, to concreting a house, to go on an excursion. Every trip is very different but GLA does an amazing job and i am so glad i had the opportunity to do something this amazing.