{"id":6180,"date":"2016-05-02T09:59:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=6180"},"modified":"2016-01-21T15:19:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T20:19:27","slug":"group-leader-spotlight-justin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/group-leader-spotlight-justin","title":{"rendered":"Group Leader Spotlight: Justin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Justin,<\/a>

Justin, social studies teacher<\/p><\/div>\n

Justin views educational travel as a way\u00a0to help his students experience faraway\u00a0places they probably couldn\u2019t visit on\u00a0their own. \u201cI like to choose destinations\u00a0that are outside of Europe\u2014a little less\u00a0conventional,\u201d says the veteran group\u00a0leader who has logged successful tours all\u00a0over the globe. In 2015 Justin reached out\u00a0to his Explorica program consultant, Emma, and they\u00a0designed a dream itinerary to India and Nepal.<\/p>\n

Then, disaster struck.<\/p>\n

The April 2015 earthquake in Nepal devastated the tiny\u00a0nation, leveling entire villages and knocking out infrastructure.\u00a0Realizing that his tour might not be possible,\u00a0Justin reached out to Emma. \u201cShe told me, \u2018We\u2019re willing\u00a0to do this if you are. We\u2019re staying with you.\u2019\u2019\u2019 With that\u00a0hurdle cleared, Justin held an emergency meeting of his\u00a0trip participants and proposed a new focus for their tour:\u00a0providing aid. They were on board, and so was Explorica.<\/p>\n

\"Tibet\"Justin and Emma began redesigning the trip. \u201cWe\u00a0removed tourist excursions to give us
\ntime for our\u00a0humanitarian efforts and to drop the price, so we could\u00a0extend the opportunity to local Nepalese who wanted to\u00a0go back and help family,\u201d he relays. Then they worked to\u00a0increase the group\u2019s baggage limits, so they could bring\u00a0the necessary supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I choose Explorica for these more exotic locations,\u201d\u00a0Justin explains. \u201cOther companies I\u2019ve worked\u00a0with wouldn\u2019t touch this trip, but Explorica is making it\u00a0happen. Besides clearing the logistical hurdles, they\u2019ve extended\u00a0deadlines and adjusted our itinerary to meet the\u00a0goals of my group. They have stood by me at every turn.\u00a0This is a very different tour than the trips I usually lead,\u00a0but one thing is the same: Explorica is right by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go farther\u00a0on an international immersion adventure<\/a><\/strong> your students will never forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin views educational travel as a way\u00a0to help his students experience faraway\u00a0places they probably couldn\u2019t visit on\u00a0their own. \u201cI like to choose destinations\u00a0that are outside of Europe\u2014a little less\u00a0conventional,\u201d says the veteran group\u00a0leader who has logged successful tours all\u00a0over the globe. In 2015 Justin reached out\u00a0to his Explorica program consultant, Emma, and they\u00a0designed a dream Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,172],"tags":[58,11066,84,427,11067,128],"class_list":["post-6180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorica-news","category-teachers","tag-educational-travel","tag-go-farther","tag-india","tag-make-a-difference","tag-nepal","tag-student-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6183,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180\/revisions\/6183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}