Application Process
How are students chosen? What are the criteria?
How many students apply and how many are accepted?

Guatemala Trip Preparation
What GV forms are required?
What kind of inoculations/vaccinations are required?
How do I get a passport?
Who makes all the arrangements and gets air tickets?
How much spending money should a participant take on a trip?

During the trip
How do you select and screen the host families?
Who are your chaperones and Trip Leaders?
What is your Teacher:Student ratio?
How do language classes work?
How many students per host family?
What is your policy on safety?
How do you handle adult supervision of students?
What is the policy on sending students home?
What service work do you do?
What is the philosophy of the service organizations with which you work?
What are the ages of participants?
Does GV carry medical and liability Insurance?
What happens if there is a medical problem on the trip?
When, how and where can students be contacted in emergency?
Can students contact parents in States?
Do you discuss the lessons and experiences students have each day?

How are students chosen? What are the criteria?
The strength of a student's application is the primary criteria. Keep in mind the following: Global Visionaries' (GV) mission is to create a diverse group. To this end, we aim to ensure that in our Spring and Summer Programs:

• 50% of students are from low-income families; 50% from middle and upper income families.
• 50% of students identify as students of color; 50% identify as white.
• A geographic distribution of students schools: approx. 85-90% from Seattle and 10-15% from Eastside schools.
• Equal distribution of males/females.
• Distribution in age range is approximately: 9th grade: 20% / 10th and 11th grade 70-75% / 12th grade: 5 - 10%
• Students who have never traveled abroad have priority over those who have extensive travel. (However, many of our participants have traveled abroad so it does not eliminate an applicant by any means.)

Once a student is accepted into the program, GV looks to the participants of the program to demonstrate the type of leadership required for a successful trip. Prior to the trip, GV will review students' profiles to determine if they have met the following requirements to enable them to participate on the international cultural and service immersion trip to Guatemala:

• Attendance at each Culture Night meeting
• Attendance at the Pre-trip retreat
• Attendance and participation in each Work Team meeting (if a Work Team meeting has to be missed, students can make up hours volunteering in the GV office)
• Reaching fundraising goals
• Participation in GV Supply Drive
• Payment of all GV payments up to date of departure
• Completion and submission of all GV forms
• Receipt of passport and vaccinations
  

How many students apply and how many are accepted?
For 2011-12, we are accepting 43 for Spring Leadership Program, 43 for Summer Leadership Program and 33 for Summer Intensive Leadership; 18 Intensive (all girls trip); 18 Intensive (Allies trip). Generally 2 of every 3 applications is accepted.
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What GV forms are required?
GV requires the submission of the following:

• GV Participant Agreement (SIGNED BY PARTICIPANT AND PARENTS)
• A photocopy of any prescription drugs/medicines that you take on trip
• 3 CLEAR photocopies of your passport
• A photocopy of your vaccination booklet that shows proof that you have completed all GV required inoculations including Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetanus.
  

What kind of inoculations/vaccinations are required?
None are required to enter Guatemala. However, GV requires: tetanus, hepatitis A and B. Typhoid is optional and at the discretion of each family. We do not visit areas that have risk of malaria. Visit the United States' Center for Disease Control website for more information.
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How do I get a passport?
GV staff is happy to assist you in acquiring your passport. Some students require extra help because they are not able to locate a parent who lives out of state or with whom student has had no contact. We have been successful in getting passports for Foster children, adopted children, students who cannot locate parents, and for other circumstances. For instructions about getting a passport, please see the US State Department's website. Requirements essentially include: application, application fee, proof of citizenship, and proof of identity. Applicants must apply in person at a Passport Agency with their parent or guardian.
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Who makes all the arrangements and gets air tickets?
GV makes every arrangement for the trip, including the air tickets and all in-country transportation..
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How much spending money should a participant take on a trip?
Participants should take approximately $100-$150 for the trip. Broken down: snacks ($1/day), tips for Spanish teacher and host family ($26-$30 total), long distance phone calls ($0.70/minute/phone call), internet($5 total), laundry($5 total), gifts for family and friends (amount of money depends on participant), and money for incidentals (if necessary).
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During the Trip

How do you select and screen the host families?
The families are pre-selected by GV Guatemalan staff. Additionally, GV staff pre-screen families and their homestays prior to students' arrival. All families have training and experience with hosting foreign students. They are partners in the Global Visionaries program; they know our policies and rules and assist us in reaching our program goals. They treat all food and serve only purified water. We have formed close friendships with several of the families. Students sometimes keep in touch with their families after returning home. Noteworthy: our host town is a small community; generally speaking, everyone knows each other. Senior Guatemalan staff have lived in the town their whole lives.
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Who are your chaperones and Trip Leaders?
Trip leaders generally include GV staff (Founder/Executive Director, Program Manager, Guatemalan Country Coordinators, Guatemalan Jr. Leaders) and school teachers from participating Seattle Schools. All leaders are carefully screened, background checked, and trained. We also ensure we have CPR and first aid trained leaders on each trip.
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What is your Teacher : Student ratio?
6:1 (Six students to 1 leader)
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How do language classes work?
Each student receives his/her own teacher for the entire session. Students have three hour sessions for one week with their instructor. Students who really apply themselves develop a heightened comfort with the language and can learn up to a semester or a year's worth of Spanish during the trip! Where do the students stay when not with host families? We stay in hotels. This is generally the last two nights of the trip.
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How many students per host family?
There are always a minimum of two Global Visionaries students of like gender in each home. Depending on the size and comfort of the home, we may put as many as four. The average is two or three per home. Students from other nations and programs may also be living in the home depending on the size of the home.
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What is your policy on safety?
Safety is our first priority; we are extremely cautious on trips. We ensure that all students are safe the entire trip and actively take steps to avoid any potential danger. All GV leaders make this their number one priority. We take all State Department recommended precautions to travelers abroad to ensure a safe trip. Our safety record is perfect thus far. For information about traveling in Guatemala, see the United States' State Department web site.
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How do you handle adult supervision of students?
Students are very rarely unaccompanied by a GV group leader. Examples of exceptions are as follows. 1) During home stay, students are at home with their host families. They are required to stay in the home with the family. They may not leave the homestay unless accompanied by a GV adult staff person. This is family time. 2) On some trips, if the participants show maturity and caution, they may earn freedom to walk themselves, in a group of four or more, to and from language school and home during daylight hours only. The Leaving Group Rule: This applies when students are anywhere (airport, language school, hanging out in a plaza). Students always ask permission from GV leader, tell the leader who is going, what for (ie: bathroom, snack), and amount of time it will take. (5 - 10 minutes maximum is the rule.)

The evenings are dedicated to spending time with host family. The only occasions that GV participants leave their home stay at night are for full group activities. Students always return home at night in groups, accompanied by an adult male GV leader. Students may go across the street from the language school in groups to purchase snacks. Other than these listed cases, they are never unaccompanied by GV adult staff.
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What is the policy on sending students home?
There are five ways to get sent home at your parents' expense (plus any additional costs): 1. Attempting to use, pursuit of, or use of illegal drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. 2. Leaving Home stay or leaving group without permission or unaccompanied by GV adult staff. 3. Leaving the group at any time without permission of GV Leader. 4. Blatant disrespect to anyone in the group or anyone with whom the group interacts. 5. Knowledge of a fellow GV participant engaging in the first four and failing to report it to GV adult staff.
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What service work do you do?
Each student becomes a part of a GV work team. There are approximately 10-15 students from the U.S. and 10-15 from Guatemala/team. There are four work teams: Coffee (*Spring only) Reforestation (*Summer and Intensives), Construction and Hospital. The GV teams work with a partner organization, municipal government or social service agency including Obras Sociales de Hermano Pedro Hospital and Common Hope or one of the projects that GV organizes with local community and governmental leaders. See our International Service page for more information.
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What is the philosophy of the service organizations with which you work?
We work in solidarity, not charity. This quote encapsulates our philosophy of service: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you understand that your liberation is tied to mine, let's work together." We work side by side with Guatemalans and everyone-U.S. and Guatemalans get equal benefits from the collaboration. As Green As It Gets describes itself as an incubator for small businesses, enabling coffee farmers and small business owners in Guatemala to support their families and get ahead. They provide resources, training, and microloans to businesses ranging from coffee, to textiles, to jade workers.

Obras Sociales de Hermano Pedro Hospital is dedicated to caring for the poor, orphaned children, mentally and/or physically incapacitated homeless people of Guatemala, providing health and medical care, education, and a home.
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What are the ages of participants?
From 9th to 12th grade.
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Does GV carry medical and liability Insurance?
GV has travel medical insurance for all participants and liability coverage. Each student needs to make sure that their family policy covers them abroad because this is their primary insurance. GV purchases additional travel insurance for all travelers which is included in the price of the program.
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What happens if there is a medical problem on the trip?
While we have never had an emergency situation requiring a phone call home to notify parents, we have at our disposal several private hospitals with English speaking physicians on duty nearby Antigua. We would take every step to contact parents in the case of emergency.
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When, how and where can students be contacted in emergency?
We have a full list of contacts we give out to parents prior to departure. Parents know how to contact us in each location of our trip. Trip leaders carry cell phones for emergency situations.
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Can students contact parents in States?
Yes. We call upon arrival and a parent phone tree goes into effect. Students have the opportunity to call home once, midway through the trip. They can email once while in Guatemala. However, staff will send email updates every three days or so with the quotes from the students' entries in the group journal.
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Do you discuss the lessons and experiences students have each day?
We make time each day to check in with each student individually and as a group, to go over our schedule, important things to remember, and equally as important, to have reflection time. GV participants experience so much in one day. We take time to share experiences and learning with the group. Students are highly encouraged to bring a journal on the trip; we take time to discuss their impressions, questions, and both amazing experiences such as holding a child, finishing the last details of building a new home and difficult experiences such as seeing extreme poverty and working with bed-ridden adolescents in the Hermano Pedro Hospital. We listen, answer questions provide adult support for what they are experiencing.
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