Camp Focus:

Description:

Unique adventures in Asia, Africa & Latin America combining language, study, service, home-stays and wilderness for authentic cultural immersions in China, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Senegal and Morocco for students 15 and up.

In the days before the world had been fully charted, map-makers would draw in Dragons to represent the lands that were still unknown. Bold explorers who ventured beyond the map's edge were said to go “where there be dragons.”

Founded in 1992, Where There Be Dragons (or Dragons for short,) has guided thousands of students on rugged, honest, small-group journeys in the developing world. Dragons courses are dynamic and fun adventures, taking participants to seldom visited parts of colorful lands, and introducing them to unique, illuminating aspects of traditional culture.

Over an extended period of time, immersed in strikingly different physical and cultural landscapes, Dragons courses combine the best in experiential education, travel, service learning, and physically and intellectually engaging experiences. When our students step out of the familiar world and settle into a richly different one, they gain a unique point of reference from which they can look back on their own lives with greater clarity and perspective. On each course we challenge, educate, and provide a forum for deep reflection of our own culture and values, while becoming familiar with the complicated relationships that cross cultures and continents. While courses vary in their focus – with some trekking and wilderness intensive, others strong on service and development studies, and still others language oriented – all Dragons courses are designed above all else to be fun, safe journeys that put a premium on educational experiences.

We believe that the safest, most insightful, honest, and fun travel experiences happen when small groups make the most of the unique assets available to them. As a professional guiding company, with more than 60,000 participant-days of leadership experience overseas, we have found that students' experiences are richest and most rewarding when we work with each leader team to draw on the leaders’ unique strengths and backgrounds, when we reach out to the students and integrate their special goals and interests, and when we pay careful attention to the ever-changing environmental challenges that are common to the developing world. For Dragons, this translates to a core philosophy wherein each course is a dynamic process that is not limited to a static itinerary. In place of a rigid itinerary - set in stone a year in advance - our course plans are ever attentive to on-site realities that can seldom be fully predicted.

By sizing our groups with ten to twelve participants, and ensuring an average staff to student ratio of 1:4, we are able to maintain sensible, responsive dynamism. By focusing on a process rather than an itinerary, we ensure that all partners in course planning are constantly focused on the primary goals of safety and educational experience, and it ensures that we make the most of the unique variables of place, character of students, and experience of staff.

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