Updated 2017-10-31

Project World School

A travel resource for self-directed adolescents and teenagers. We create temporary learning communities all around the world and immerse ourselves in other cultures to better grow, learn and relate, all within community.
Lainie Liberti & Miro Siegel co-founders & facilitators
Travel & Worldschooling
http://projectworldschool.com
click to see email
City: Cusco
Country: Peru
Guanajuato, Chiang Mai, Athens, La Paz, Pembrokeshire

Description

Project World School co-founders Lainie Liberti and her son Miro Siegel founded PWS in 2013 with their vision to co-create dynamic learning communities for adolescent, self-directed learners in different parts of the world. They began by hosting one retreat that year in Cusco, Peru.

By 2017, they had produced over 15 month-long trips in eight different countries, with each retreat focusing on specific themes related to the host countries. The learning communities merge immersive, hands-on experiences with personal and social development, focusing on global citizenship, cultural sensitivity, and developing relationships through exploring ethics and conflict resolution.

Project World School’s programs are specifically designed to help adolescents expand their perspectives and understand where they fit into this great big world of ours through travel, collaboration and experience.

SDE Optimizing Conditions

ASDE surveys all SDE communities/programs about how they provide, enhance, or align with each of the Six Optimizing Conditions for young people to succeed in SDE.  Survey answers:
  1. Responsibility – Project World School functions on the concept of total 'buy-in'; all of our participants attend because of their own intrinsic motivations to learn in community. We choose not to teach, but to instead facilitate, and with that comes flexibility.
  2. Youth Autonomy – In the interest of building community, we invite our participants to explore the balance between individual desires and the needs of the community as a whole. We function in partnership, with no authority figures.
  3. Access to Tools and Technology – Local tools are available to us via classes, volunteer work, and hands-on experiences. These things may vary from Thai massage to pottery, depending on our location.
  4. Adult Allies – Our facilitators support participants through conflicts, struggles, or anxieties without placing any expectations on them. We do not judge, grade, or test, and never will.
  5. Free Age Mixing – Our programs are open to adolescent learners from ages 13 to 25. Once within the community there is no age segregation; everybody is living in close quarters, without exception, for the duration of the trip.
  6. Community – Project World School's main focus is on the community aspect. We thrive to create an open, safe space to reflect and learn from our experiences. We function on a consensus system, so everybody's voice has equal weight in our decision making process

If any information about this resource is out of date, please let us know.