Students
If you're in grades 9-12, start here. The interest list is the first step.
Learn more →SPRING 2027 · COLOMBIA
The world is
your classroom.
A 12-week leadership experience for students who are ready to step outside their neighborhood and into the world.
NEIGHBORHOOD GENIUS × GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE◆40 STUDENT LEADERS PER COHORT◆SPRING 2027 · COLOMBIA◆PARTNERS CO-INVEST $6,000 PER SCHOLAR◆LAUNCHPAD · IMMERSION · INTEGRATION◆EVERY STUDENT LEAVES WITH AN IMPACT PITCH◆BORN FROM THE SURGE INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIP◆LOCAL GENIUS. GLOBAL STAGE.◆NEIGHBORHOOD GENIUS × GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE◆40 STUDENT LEADERS PER COHORT◆SPRING 2027 · COLOMBIA◆PARTNERS CO-INVEST $6,000 PER SCHOLAR◆LAUNCHPAD · IMMERSION · INTEGRATION◆EVERY STUDENT LEAVES WITH AN IMPACT PITCH◆BORN FROM THE SURGE INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIP◆LOCAL GENIUS. GLOBAL STAGE.◆
THE PROGRAM
We don't just travel.
We solution-source.
Global Leadership Experience is a 12-week leadership program for high school students. Six weeks of preparation, one week of international immersion, and five weeks of integration where students translate what they witnessed into a project for their own community.
Students study how communities have solved their own hardest problems. Then they go home to ask what their own city could become.
The 2027 cohort travels to Colombia.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Four ways to build
with us.
Schools & Partners
Sponsor a cohort from your school or district. $6,000 per student, door-to-door.
Learn more →Funders
Invest in a lineage of leadership. Sponsor seats, fund destinations, partner on the build.
Learn more →Volunteers
Lend your expertise as a facilitator, mentor, pitch coach, or fundraiser. There is a role for every kind of leader.
Learn more →THE IMPACT PITCH
Every student leaves
with a plan.
Not just a passport stamp. A project for their own neighborhood.
At the end of the program, every student designs and presents an Impact Pitch: a solution to a challenge they witnessed abroad, applied to their own community. This is the mechanism that turns travelers into architects.
See How It WorksTHE INVESTMENT
Our board invests first.
The true cost to put one student through our elite, 12-week global leadership residency is $9,000. To ensure equity, our founding board members personally cover 33% ($3,000) of the cost for every seat, demonstrating their commitment first. We then ask partners to co-invest the remaining $6,000 per scholar.
$9,000
True cost per scholar
$6,000
Partner co-investment
Every seat is backed by a board that put their own money in first.
Stay close to the work.
Program updates, cohort announcements, no filler.