by Iggy and Gabby

The Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education (FLYTE) is a nonprofit organization with a mission for students. Their goal is to expand students’ cultural, academic, and social horizons by providing schools with the resources needed.

This year, we at Excelsior Academy, were lucky enough to be the high school selected to travel abroad! We recently had the honor to meet Courtney Dalton, Executive Director and Co-Founder of FLYTE.  A brief meeting took place where we introduced ourselves to Courtney and uncovered what our Ecuador trip may look like. After eating pizza together, we explained a little more about what our mission at Global to Local stems from and what our student-led impact projects may look like in fall.

FLYTE provided us with this once in a lifetime opportunity to see and learn from a country that we otherwise may have never interacted with.  In the past they teamed up with schools to help students experience countries such as Cuba and Mexico. The program is now working with our teachers to ensure we have a safe and unforgettable educational experience in Ecuador.

FLYTE believes that no matter the economic situation, “every student deserves a chance to expand his or her global education.” The founder of FLYTE, Matthew Kepnes (also known as Nomadic Matt) says it best, “We are doing this to help students become global citizens, bring life to the subjects they learn in school, and expose them to new ideas and cultures.” This is an idea the FLYTE organization has worked towards in the past and is continuing to work towards for the members of Global to Local.

We are looking forward to the experience of travel and a different culture, but we are all also looking forward to how this trip will better us as students and as members of a community.