Teachers RISE
What is RISE Travel Institute's Teachers RISE Program?
Teachers RISE: Educating for a Better World Through Sustainable Travel is a 10-hour online program for educators, parents, and tour operators who design educational travel experiences for youth and students. The program offers a comprehensive overview of attitudes and values that have shaped, and continue to shape travel today, and provides participants with the tools to critically examine whether their existing student travel programs reinforce or challenge these attitudes. Participants will learn how to prepare students to understand and experience travel in ways that are not only enriching to themselves but also beneficial to host communities and ecosystems.
What is the Teachers RISE Program format?
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A 10-hour online certificate program
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The program is conducted in English
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Time commitment for the program is estimated to be 10 hours, including:
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3 rigorous asynchronous modules with pre-recorded videos
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Suggested readings + Teachers RISE Workbook
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1 international virtual tour curated by award-winning Mejdi Tours
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1 interactive live session
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​Participation in discussion forums and submission of a capstone project are requirements for the certification
What is the curriculum?
Module 1: Reflecting on Where We’ve Been
​In Module 1, teachers will explore past attitudes towards travel from a personal and global perspective by identifying the impact of extractive tourism on ourselves, other communities, and ecosystems while navigating concepts of intersectionality, privilege, power, and difference in the context of shifting attitudes towards travel.
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Module 2: Noticing Where We Are
​​In Module 2, teachers will recognize the tourism industry's recent shift towards more regenerative practices and identify the role systems-thinking plays in traveling more sustainably. Using this knowledge, they will study the long-term positive impact of ethical and sustainable travel on our own travel experiences, host communities, and global ecosystems. They’ll investigate ways to leverage our positions of power to help shape the future of travel.
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Module 3: Aspiring Toward Where We’re Going
​In Module 3, teachers will analyze and identify gaps in previous field trips or study tours through RISE's sustainability and anti-oppression lenses. They’ll engage in a transformative virtual tour to Palestine and Israel that exemplifies impactful travel for tourists and local communities alike, and will be able to apply the concepts of this program to create, build, and conceptualize a sustainable field trip and/or study tour for students.
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Who are the instructors?
The Teachers RISE program is designed and taught by the RISE Travel Institute team in collaboration with academics and professionals in tourism, social justice, animal protection, and environmental sustainability.
Who should take the Teachers RISE Program?
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Tour operators who design study tours for youth and students
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Educators worldwide
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Members of school or district administration teams
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Higher education instructors and professors in field work
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TOEFL educators, ESL teachers, FLE educators, special educators, and study program leaders
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International educators
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Experiential learning instructors
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Wildlife and natural resource instructors
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Social justice teachers
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Parents interested in traveling with children
Asynchronous Program Schedule
The Teacher RISE Certificate Program will officially launch on September 1st, 2024. Once you have enrolled in the program, you will have 2 months to complete it.
How much is tuition?
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$375 USD tuition per person
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$300 USD per person for 2-4 people enrolling together from the same school or district
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$225 USD per person for teams of 5 or more enrolling together from the same school or district
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To make our programs and courses more accessible to everyone, we adopt a tiered pricing model for individuals based in lower-income economies (Read more about our pricing model here)
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​Our textbooks and film resources are not included in the program cost
Why should you take the Teachers RISE Program?
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Increased knowledge on sustainability, justice, and responsible travel through a systems-thinking framework
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Ready-to-apply strategies and tools to design impactful lessons, field trips, study tours and other educational travel experiences
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Skills to support students on their journey of intercultural understanding
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Access to expert advice on program design through the capstone project
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Access to RISE Travel Institute’s forthcoming online community platform, a community space where sustainable tourism professionals and conscious travelers come together to share stories, experiences, reflections, insights, and resources
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Access to RISE’s free resources including podcast, blog, book club, ebooks, place-based courses and more
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Opportunity to participate in future RISE events as speakers
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Opportunity to showcase capstone project at RISE‘s Annual Student Conference
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Becoming a RISE certified conscious travel educator
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A professional credential that appeals to a growingly eco and socially conscious young generation
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Complimentary dual-narrative virtual tour by our esteemed partner Mejdi Tours
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"Teachers RISE Alumni Rate" for all online programs and courses at RISE Travel Institute
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Eligibility to join our future domestic and international Experiential Journeys to put theory into practice
Convince your school to fund your enrollment
If you wish to convince your school administration to fund your participation in this program, this is a letter you can download, personalize, and submit to your administrator. If you are interested in bringing this program to your school on specific dates that work for you and your colleagues, email us at info@risetravelinstitute.org and indicate "Inquiry: Teachers RISE" in the email subject line.