<p>Have any of you parents sent your children on a summer Rustic Pathways program and if so, which ones? My daughter is very interested in doing one next summer in Peru. Do schools look at their service projects as elitist or would it be beneficial to include participation in this on an application?
Regardless, it would be helpful just to know if there are any negative issues with this company before we decide to book one of their trips for her. She also wants to do a trip for a graduation present in 2009</p>
<p>We rejected this idea as well as a bunch of similar programs. I am not an admission officer, but here is my opinion. These are 100% "trips with a twist for rich kids, nothing more. Maybe a way to improve foreign language. I came to this conclusion after looking at the work/entertainment ratio and looking at what minimally valuable is accomplished by such programs). Plus, if you need to go abroad to find a community that can use your help, then you have to be blind.
Nothing wrong with such trip being a graduation present, though - lots of fun!</p>
<p>"Do schools look at their service projects as elitist ?"
In a word- yes. These kind of expensive-buy-your-commmunity-service hours-programs are not the kind of EC's that college admission offices look upon with favor.</p>
<p>I heard one adcom comment that he was put off by a student treking off to do a Central American service project costing the family several thousands of dollars when there were so many community service opportunities in nearby cities and neighborhoods.</p>
<p>However if you DD has participated in local community service programs and now wants to experience spending some time in a foreign culture, I would not discourage her as long as the sponsor has her doing meaningful work and ensures a safe work/living environment.</p>
<p>The adcoms i have spoken to in the past, view these as expensive summer camps for the rich. They would much rather see a student working in order to pay for college tuition
than go to these programs.</p>
<p>It won't help with admissions. At all. And could really hurt if porayed wrong to the wrong adcom with a bug in their bonnet. Was that the question? If she wants to travel - then travel . Nothing wrong with that. D took a graduation trip she loved. She just never thought about admissions while on the beach.;) </p>
<p>The worst I've seen is the combo African medical clinic/safari. Heck, I'd reject them if that tune played too loudly in their app. LOL.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my daughter's participation in a Landmark Volunteers program was looked on very favorably by a local scholarship organization.</p>
<p>Landmark Volunteers looks to be a legitimate organisation designed to match students with needed volunteer work at various locations around the country. It seems to be very different than the $4000 vacation/"volunteer" programs we have been referring to. Wish my son had known about it! The Tanglewood opportunity sounds like sometning he would have loved to do!</p>
<p>Thanks for the great comments on this idea and you have all really helped me decide not to let her do this next summer. I was already leaning towards not doing it and will send her to Kanakuk Colorado camp instead.</p>
<p>Colorado in the summer is wonderful!</p>
<p>My son did the Rustic Pathways "Soccer and Service" program in Costa Rica for the last two summers. He wants to return to his tiny village for a third year and live once again with the same family in the same hut. (RP offers scholarships for returning students.) Perhaps the adcoms will not be impressed, but Rustic Pathways was life-changing for him. The Spanish immersion aspect of the program helped him be selected to travel to Spain as part of a delegation of twelve exchange students. He also qualified to be a soccer coach for Spanish-speaking kids at a summer camp for the homeless in our city, and was later invited to join their leadership program. I agree that the idea of traveling to Fiji for a surf trip and calling it community service is not a great way to pad a resume. But Rustic Pathways does an excellent job of presenting kids with authentic, challenging and fun cultural encounters. The price for many of their programs is about the same or less than the cost of summer camp, and the experience of living and working in a foreign environment and learning a new language (for young people who still have the chance to become completely fluent) is just not the same as spending a summer in Colorado.</p>
<p>My D participated in a program that required the h.s.students to start planning their one month trekking and service trip to a remote developing nation 18 months ahead of time. Additionally, it was the program's intention that students earn their trip expenses and share considerable leadership, financial, transportation and lodging responsibilities while on the expedition. It was a big deal for the students to save so much money while maintaining school and volunteer responsibilities. They truly owned the trip and continue to correspond with and support the orphanage where they worked. This travel experience was life changing and D chose to write an essay about it for her applications. If we had "sent" her on this trip, she would not have mentioned it to colleges.</p>
<p>I'm sure Rustic Pathways offers wonderful experiences, otherwise they would not still be in business. But the OP was asking this specific question regarding those kind of programs and how they "look" to college admission officers- -"Do schools look at their service projects as elitist or would it be beneficial to include participation in this on an application?"
That is all we were addressing.</p>
<p>I think it can be worthwhile to include these programs in a college application IF they are part of a student's consistent pattern of participation in community service-related activities. </p>
<p>My D, now a senior in college, did two summer community service projects abroad through Putney, a company that I think is similar to Rustic Pathways. Expensive (we referred to these programs as "Purchased Poverty") but valuable and enriching for her. Her main EC in high school was community service, which she did plenty of locally during the school year, so these programs were not selected to pad a resume. She did include them on her college resume, and I certainly don't think they harmed her in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Apart from community service programs abroad, many summer programs, including highly selective programs, cost real money (e.g., CTY, PROMYS). No one suggests that such programs should be omitted from college applications as "elitist." Similarly, there is no reason to brand all community service programs abroad as "elitist". Some kids choose to do them for the right reasons. That their parents are able to foot the bill does not automatically render them valueless or the kids who do them vapid and spoiled.</p>
<p>absolutely include these trips on an application
on whether or not they are elitist-
if you have the money to send her on this trip, then she could have easily spent the summer traveling around Europe or tanning at the pool. instead, she is using the money for the greater good and not for totally selfish reasons. the kids who go on these trips genuniely want to help, so i'd say embrace the opportunity</p>
<p>ps sorry for the ancient bump but i wanted to get my opinion out</p>
<p>I think the only downside to including Rustic-Pathways-type excursion on the application is that it suggests your child doesn't know the diff b/w real service and a teen tour. </p>
<p>Certainly the Rustic Pathways $$ could be spent traveling through Europe. And foreign trave is a wonderful, enriching, life-changing experience - but foreign travel isn't service to others. The expensive service prgms are often more soccer than service - - at a high price. </p>
<p>Agree w/ wbj. If your S/D has already participated in a number of true service projs, then the high-priced service prgms are part of the overall profile and more along the lines of foreign travel.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your opinions and perspectives. My D has done local volunteer work at the Children's hospital and has traveled fairly extensively on family vacations in the past. She really wants to go to Peru, but instead of us spending a small fortune on purchasing supplies for her to sleep in a tent for 2 weeks with Rustic Pathways for a lot of money, she will be going on a mission trip to Peru that focuses on sharing her faith while providing much needed services to the local families that have been devastated by the earthquake. She will have a decent roof over her head, nurses and physicians accompany them (so her mother will not worry!) along with other experienced staff members. I anticipate that she will receive as much as she gives during these two weeks and this is a much better solution for us ( its cheaper too for dorm style accomodations than the tent city with Rustic).</p>
<p>That sounds like an excellent resolution to the problem, hope4. I'm sure your daughter will have a great experience.</p>
<p>We are about to sign our 17-year old daughter up for the Costa Rica Soccer & Service program. Any advice or helpful information?</p>
<p>Last summer my son spent a month in Costa Rica. He was two weeks with Rustic Pathways and two weeks with the Duke TIP program. Although the Rustic Pathways clearly isn't something to whoo hoo about on a college app, my son really enjoyed it. He did the Soccer and Service program and loved his stay with the local family. However I do recommend that you look for the child to spend more than one week as the trip to Costa Rica, well, especially for us from California, is long and expensive and for us it seemed best as long as he was going down to have him spend some real time in-country.</p>
<p>Bringing the gifts for the host family is important and a lot of fun. Otherwise just be aware that the kids do not spend the entire week in the host family, there is transition time in a hostel etc. in San Jose.</p>