Xperitas team members bumped into Jill Gabel, of Fargo, North Dakota, at a recent parent meeting we attended at an area high school. Jill was a high school student participant in a French immersion program thirty years ago with ISE (now Xperitas), and now has two sons in our programs.

Barbara Koester's first travel group started small, with only two students from her school. Now, 31 years later, her travel group has grown to 28 students. We asked her advice for high school language teachers looking to get an immersion program approved, and how to turn that program into a consistent success.

I have been collaborating with Xperitas since 2008 to take my Spanish students overseas, and I cannot imagine working with a more dedicated group of professionals.

Our Xperitas planned school exchange has earned the accolades of students, families, administrations and communities, and the impact and connections reach well beyond the individuals traveling.

Over 20 years and 17 trips later, I can't imagine traveling with anyone else.

As a parent, you want to ensure your child’s family stay abroad will be safe, fun and life-changing in all the right ways. Jackie, parent of Sophia, a past France program participant, told us how attitude made the biggest impact on her daughter’s experience.

As a parent, you want to ensure your child’s family stay abroad will be safe, fun and life-changing in all the right ways. Jackie, parent of Sophia, a past France program participant, told us how attitude made the biggest impact on her daughter’s experience.

Xperitas Ambassador Edda P. shares her Spanish immersion experience and plans to incorporate her language skills into her goals for the future.

This was to be my first Christmas away from home, and I was nervous. I was four-months into my first year in France, and though I was beginning to feel at home with my host family, I wasn’t sure I was ready to face their extended family yet. I discovered that this was an opportunity to learn and participate in new traditions.

Most Americans in the United States are familiar with the expression “as American as apple pie.” However, it wasn’t until I studied abroad in France (and later lived and worked in France and Belgium) that I realized just how deeply rooted pumpkin pie, and more importantly the Thanksgiving holiday, was in my American upbringing.