Upper School Global Travel 2026-2027

Join Colorado Academy in France, Costa Rica, Greece, Spain, or New Zealand

At CA, we domesticate international residents via curriculum that weaves mental rigor and character improvement. Integral to this basis are transformative experiences extending past classroom partitions, inviting college students to find the world as their dwelling laboratory.

These fastidiously crafted worldwide experiences are journeys into extraordinary studying—immersive adventures that require funding past normal tuition. From academically rigorous expeditions to significant service tasks, every program connects on to our curriculum whereas promising to forge lasting recollections and broaden mental horizons.

CA school members lead every expedition with experience and fervour, and they’re supported by fastidiously vetted skilled journey organizations. Understanding that transformative studying requires peace of thoughts, we make security the cornerstone of each journey.

Want to enroll?

The utility window for Upper School Global Travel is open till October 18, 2026. Apply now using this initial application. Spaces are restricted. Program roster notifications will exit by November 19. 

Questions? Reach out to this system chief or contact Taja McKinney, CA Director of Global Travel.

Have Questions About Financial Aid?

Families who obtain need-based tuition help at CA could submit a Financial Aid Request Form for CA Travel to be thought-about for funding for school-sponsored journey. This is a separate request kind from this system utility.  

As funds are restricted, CA prioritizes funding for college students who’ve but to expertise a school-sponsored program within the division the place they’re presently enrolled. Even if their pupil has participated in a CA journey program prior to now, households should proceed with a monetary help request within the occasion that funding turns into obtainable.

Questions about monetary help? Contact [email protected]. Comuníquese con Abel Ramirez al 303-914-2573 si el español es su idioma preferido.

France Interim: Local Roots, National Identity

• Location: Paris, Rennes, Nantes. Northern France
• Dates: May 21–29, 2027
• Program Leaders: Stephanie Turner and Kenneth Usongo
• Total Program Cost (consists of flights and $500 Interim credit score): $4640
• Eligibility: Grades 9-12 French Language expertise most popular
• Capacity: 14-18 college students
• Vendor: Atlas Workshops
• Read extra: Itinerary
• Initial Student Application Due: October 18th 2026

France operates as each a unified republic and a set of distinct regional cultures, every holding its personal language, traditions, and relationship to nationwide id. Students will hint that

stress throughout Brittany, Nantes, and Paris, asking a query that runs via all three stops: how does a group protect a definite tradition whereas nonetheless belonging to one thing bigger?

Breton Identity & Celtic Heritage: The program begins in Rennes, the capital of Brittany, the place college students discover a regional id formed by Celtic heritage and the Breton language, a tradition that predates and persists alongside French nationwide id. Students join with locals to discover Breton language and tradition inside the broader French context, go to the Library of Brittany and the area’s museum of native historical past, and put together a conventional dinner via a hands-on cooking class. A guided go to to Mont Saint-Michel, a website whose id spans each Norman and Breton claims, and the historic harbor metropolis of Saint-Malo spherical out this exploration of how regional id holds its floor inside a nationwide one.

Nantes: History, Legacy, and Local Connection: Nantes anchors a good portion of this system, giving college students actual time to settle into the town somewhat than go via it. Students study the town’s colonial legacy and its modern reckoning with its historical past within the slave commerce, visiting the memorial to the abolition of slavery and searching out the town’s revolutionary public artwork alongside the way in which. At the Château des ducs de Bretagne, college students hint the area’s historical past and legacy firsthand, and a go to to the town’s mechanical elephant and Machines of Nantes exhibits how the town connects its previous to creative visions of the longer term. A spotlight of the Nantes keep is a go to to an area college, the place college students have interaction immediately with French friends, exchanging views and constructing the sort of connection that no itinerary cease alone can supply.

Paris: The Cultural Capital: The program closes in Paris, France’s cultural capital, the place college students take within the metropolis from the highest of the Tour Montparnasse, wander the Left Bank’s lengthy historical past as a hub for mental and creative expression, and discover neighborhoods like Montmartre earlier than reflecting collectively on how the threads of regional and nationwide id they’ve traced throughout Brittany and Nantes come collectively within the capital.    

Costa Rica Interim: Blue Zone, Global Lessons

• Location: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
• Dates: May 22–29, 2027
• Program Leaders: Madison Slater and Jazmin Nieto
• Total Program Cost (consists of airfare and $500 Interim credit score): $3445
• Eligibility: Grades 9-12 (Spanish 3 and above)
• Capacity: 15-18 college students
• Vendor: World Leadership School
• Read extra: Itinerary
• Initial Student Application Due: October 18th 2026
   

On Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, one of many world’s 5 “Blue Zones,” residents reside measurably longer than virtually anyplace else on Earth. This eight-day program, run in partnership with

World Leadership School, immerses college students in the neighborhood and life-style behind that longevity, whereas asking them to disconnect from telephones and each day routines and interact totally with the individuals, land, ocean and questions in entrance of them.

Community & Culture: Students start at Reserva el Toledo in Hojancha, studying to make tortillas by hand and touring the area with an area host and group elder to discover subjects like reforestation, sustainable meals manufacturing, and group management. A go to to Coopepilangosta, an ecological espresso processing cooperative, and a Chorotega ceramics workshop at an area ecomuseum floor college students within the peninsula’s traditions, whereas each day management periods push college students to replicate on who they’re and the way they need to act on the planet.

Partnership & Conservation: Over three days in Nosara, college students associate immediately with an area group chosen primarily based on the group’s wants and pursuits, which can embrace wildlife rescue work, sea turtle conservation at Ostional Wildlife Refuge or an area highschool. Depending on the partnership, college students may additionally be a part of a night turtle patrol, contributing on to ongoing conservation efforts on the coast.

Adventure & Natural Wonders: Students take a surf lesson on Nosara’s seashores, then shut this system with a day journey to Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, that includes a cover zip line tour via Río Blanco Canyon and a day soaking in pure mud baths formed by the area’s geothermal exercise.|

This program invitations college students to assume critically, have interaction throughout cultures, and sharpen their Spanish, all in pursuit of considered one of humanity’s oldest questions: what does it actually take to reside an extended and significant life.

Greece Interim: Storytelling and the Odyssey

• Location: Nafplio, Kefalonia and Athens
• Dates: May 21-Twenty ninth 2027
• Program Leaders: Kate O’Donnell and Kim Greeley
• Total Program Cost (consists of worldwide and home flights in Greece and $500 Interim credit score): $4725
• Eligibility: Grades 10-12
• Capacity: 16-18 college students
• Vendor: Atlas Workshops
• Read extra: Itinerary
• Initial Student Application Due: October 18th 2026
   

Greece is the place the Western storytelling custom started, and this program traces that custom throughout the Peloponnese and the Ionian Islands, retracing the bodily and legendary geography of Homer’s Odyssey. Students transfer from Nafplio’s historical citadels to Kefalonia’s shoreline and Ithaca’s shores, earlier than closing in Athens, asking all through: what made these tales value telling, and value telling once more, for hundreds of years?

Mycenaean Roots & Ancient Theater: The program begins in Nafplio, the place college students go to the Isthmus of Corinth earlier than settling into the area for a program orientation. The following day brings guided visits to Mycenae, the Bronze Age citadel tied to Homeric legend, and Epidaurus, house to one of many best-preserved historical theaters in Greece. A village taverna lunch, a day exploring Nafplio’s outdated city, and a Greek alphabet workshop floor college students within the language and each day rhythms behind the myths.

Following Odysseus to the Islands: From Nafplio, college students journey towards Athens, stopping at Nemea and both Eleusis, a mythology website tied to historical ritual, or Ancient Corinth, earlier than flying to Kefalonia. Over the subsequent three days, college students discover Melissani Cave and the Sami Archaeological Museum, go to the city of Lixouri, and take a brief ferry to Argostoli. A ferry experience to Ithaca brings this system full circle to the setting of Homer’s epic itself, with a guided go to to the Stavros Archaeological Collection, the Museum of the Sea, and the legendary website of Odysseus’s Palace and the School of Homer, alongside a gathering with locals who preserve the island’s Odyssey connection alive in the present day.

From Myth to Modern Athens: The program closes within the Athens space, starting with a go to to an Orthodox monastery and the Castle of St. George, adopted by time within the Plaka neighborhood, the place college students participate in a storytelling exercise of their very own. A welcome dinner introduces college students to the capital earlier than a remaining day that features a guided go to to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum, an area avenue meals lunch, a workshop with a Greek artist, and a closing session that brings this system’s central questions on storytelling, reminiscence, and delusion again to the group one final time.

Spain: Illuminating Sound, Vivid Expression—Choral Festival Academic Elective

• Location: Barcelona and Madrid, Spain
• Dates: June 27–July 4, 2027 (in nation) plus extra days on CA campus previous to journey (tentative rehearsal afternoon/evenings are: 6/20, 6/22 and 6/24) plus some extra days within the spring
• Program Leaders: Kevin Padworski, Phil Jones and Liza Skipwith
• Total Program Cost (consists of airfare): $5235
• Eligibility: Grades 11th of September and Music Department approval
• Capacity: 15-20 college students
• Vendor: KI
• Read extra: Detailed Itinerary 
• Initial Student Application Due: October 18th 2026

This experiential tutorial elective (for 1 trimester of artwork credit score) brings choral college students to Barcelona and Madrid to rehearse, carry out, and immerse themselves within the music that formed Spain’s creative id, culminating in a Gala Concert alongside choirs from throughout the nation underneath the route of Dr. Kevin Padworski.

Rehearsal & Performance: Students have interaction in each day pageant rehearsals, working carefully with their conductors to be taught complicated harmonies and mix their voices inside a big, mixed ensemble. The expertise builds towards two efficiency alternatives: an optionally available Festival Showcase Concert, the place college students could sing their very own repertoire alongside different pageant ensembles, and the culminating Festival Gala Concert, a shared efficiency with choirs from throughout the United States.

Cultural Immersion: In Barcelona, college students stroll the Gothic Quarter and La Rambla and encounter the hovering structure of the Sagrada Família, tracing a metropolis the place music by Albéniz and Pau Casals nonetheless echoes via its plazas and live performance halls. In Madrid, college students tour the Royal Palace, Plaza de Cibeles, and Retiro Park earlier than a day journey to Toledo, the storied “City of Three Cultures,” the place centuries of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim affect stay seen within the metropolis’s artwork and structure. 

Family Attendance Policy: Because this international journey program consists of performances, households are welcome to attend the live performance(s). Families might want to prepare their very own journey, lodging, and logistics individually from the school-organized program. Please be aware that household attendance is restricted to the performances themselves; households could not be a part of college students for the rehearsals, excursions, or different parts of the itinerary. Families fascinated by extending their pupil’s time in Spain (or Europe generally) should choose the “full tour” choice when registering after which fill out the google kind for a “travel deviation.” They will work with KI excursions on the particular flight deviation they’re requesting that can enable them to gather their pupil in Spain on the conclusion of this system and prepare a later return flight house. There is a $100 price for KI to do a deviation.

New Zealand: Wild Land, Real Adventure

• Location: Nelson, South Island New Zealand (Aotearoa)
• Dates: June 14–24, 2027
• Program Leaders: Abby Page and Kait Kozak
• Program Cost: $3950
• Airfare Cost: $2030
• Total Program Cost $5980
• Eligibility: Grades 11th of September
• Capacity: 16-18 college students
• Vendor: ExpEdNZ
• Read extra: Itinerary
• Initial Student Application Due: October 18th 2026

At the highest of New Zealand’s South Island, college students commerce the classroom for kayaks, waka, and cave methods, chasing journey via the wild landscapes of Aotearoa. Run by ExpedNZ, this program mixes actual wilderness thrills with an genuine cultural alternate.

Wilderness Adventure: Students spend two days kayaking and mountaineering the golden shoreline of Abel Tasman National Park, exploring lagoons and marine reserves and studying from the

Department of Conservation how the park’s wildlife is protected, with shot at recognizing seals, native birds, and different wildlife alongside the way in which. In Golden Bay, college students go to the gorgeous Wharariki Beach and soak up Waikoropupu Springs, the biggest freshwater spring in New Zealand, with water so clear it rivals solely the purest Antarctic waters ever measured.

Personal Challenge: Back at base, college students construct belief and teamwork via adventure-based video games, a excessive ropes and tower climb, and an abseil off the Climbing Tower, then put these expertise to the check underground within the cave methods of Takaka Hill.

Cultural Exchange: A conventional waka journey retraces the way-finding expertise that first carried Māori throughout the Pacific to Aotearoa, and a proper Pōwhiri welcome at Whakatū Marae opens a deeper cultural immersion alongside Māori youth themselves: storytelling, mau rākau (conventional preventing sticks), harakeke weaving, and an introduction to Te Whare Tapa Whā, the Māori framework for wellbeing constructed on 4 cornerstones of well being. Students additionally spend time within the small metropolis of Nelson, exploring its streets and retailers.

For Colorado college students used to their very own mountains, New Zealand presents one thing genuinely new: landscapes not like something at house, a spot wild sufficient to check them and welcoming sufficient to alter them, and a tradition and a bunch of Māori friends they’re going to really get to know. Here, the journey of a lifetime and an actual, human connection to a different tradition develop into one and the identical journey.