This year our students will build memories walking through the Colosseum, grabbing a fresh gelato in a bustling piazza exploring ruins!
And while those moments are going to be unforgettable, an international trip at OneLife is never just a vacation tacked onto the school year.
We put a massive amount of intentional thought into selecting, planning, and crafting our international experience. Each location must serve a deep educational, relational, and spiritual purpose.
Based in Rome (with day trips to Florence, Pompeii, Naples, and the Vatican) our students won’t just study history in a classroom; they will walk the exact ancient streets where the early church was forged, exploring historic cathedrals, and the footsteps of Peter, Paul, and Mark.
But other than the clear educational experience,
why do we take our students across the globe every single year?
7 Reasons We Travel Internationally
It’s one thing to travel to see cool sights. It’s a completely different thing to travel to build lifelong character. Here are the seven strategic outcomes driving our journey to Italy:
1. Seeing God at Work Globally
It’s easy to get stuck in a bubble and assume God only works the way He does in our hometowns. Stepping into a foreign country expands your perspective and shows you firsthand that the Kingdom of God is vast, diverse, and moving across every corner of the globe.
2. Unmasking Subconscious Biases
Traveling forces you to confront your own assumptions. When you immerse yourself in a different culture, language, and pace of life, you realize that your way of doing things isn’t the only way, it’s just your way.
3. Developing Cultural Intelligence
In a global economy, the ability to navigate different cultures with grace, humility, and awareness is a superpower. Experiencing everything from local customs to riding Italian transit builds real cultural intelligence that serves students for the rest of their lives.
4. Doing Hard Things & Learning Resilience
Navigating international airports, language barriers, long walking days, and unfamiliar environments isn’t always easy or comfortable. And that’s the point. Pushing through physical and mental exhaustion builds an unshakeable resilience that a classroom simply cannot teach.
5. Forging Shared Memories
There is a unique bond that happens when you share a cappuccino in Florence, navigate a train station together, or explore the Roman Forum with your gap year cohort. The shared memories made on this trip become stories our alumni tell for decades.
6. Uncovering Hidden Talents
International travel strips away your usual routine and comfort items. In that space, students discover strengths they didn’t know they had, whether it’s leading a group through a busy city, navigating a foreign map, or stepping up to encourage a tired friend.
7. Building Teamwork & Managing Conflict
Travel is high-energy, fast-paced, and occasionally stressful. Learning how to communicate well, practice patience, compromise on group decisions, and extend grace when tempers run short is where real leadership maturity is born.
Are these the only 7 ways international travel transforms young adults? Absolutely not, but we still think they’re pretty great!
This could be YOU next year…
If you want the next year of your life to include backpacking internationally and all over the US, apply now for OneLife’s Gap Year program!
