About Padma Trips
Padma offers two types of trips: Service and Adventure Education
Service Trips
These trips focus on vital community-led humanitarian and environmental projects. Trip members spend the majority of their time working hard on projects chosen by local leaders from the communities we serve. When the work is complete, trip members engage in a few days of adventure and cultural immersion activities.
Tax Deduction: As members of service trips are helping to accomplish Padma Organization’s charitable mission, the majority of trip tuition and airfare is tax deductible. A nice way the government says "thank you" for doing good in the world.
Adventure Education Trips
These trips include location-specific activities to challenge trip members and offer a chance to get a bit off the more trodden tourist paths. They focus on learning about culture, current socioeconomic issues, and engaging with local professionals who work to give back to their communities and promote sustainable living and conservation practices. When not exploring local issues or learning from local role models, there are adventure activities specific to each trip. From these partnerships with local professionals, trip members often gain insight and inspiration into their own potential university majors and career paths.
Design Your Own Trip
When working with schools, organizations, and youth groups, Padma designs trips unique to your interests. This can mean adjusting the duration or focus of trips we already offer, or selecting locations, project or themes not described in our booklets. Having worked on four continents, we have a broad ability to create trips based on the mission, values, and aims of specific groups. If you have a particular place and theme in mind, let us know and we’ll make it happen. We’re also happy to brainstorm with you to come up with an expedition that best meets your goals.
Trip Leaders, SAGE, & Risk Management
Trip Leaders
Even with fantastic trip locations and meaningful projects and activities, much of what can be garnered on a trip may be lost without a healthy and positive group culture. Padma trip leaders are trained annually in establishing and maintaining trip cultures that catalyze cooperation, safety and openness, and create a foundation to enhance and deepen the experience of every trip member. All trip leaders are also seasoned international travelers with a variety of passions and expert backgrounds, and are trained in incident response and risk assessment.
SAGE Program
Every trip includes elements of Padma’s SAGE (Skills, Altruism, Growth, Experience) Personal Development Program. While school trains youths in subjects to excel in college and find a career path, Padma aims to fill in gaps in education by developing awareness and connection to oneself, others, and community and environment. This begins with establishing a positive and safe group culture to allow for introspection, vulnerability, and personal and interpersonal discovery. Our program aims to train students as global travelers with skills that increase their ability to connect with a place and its people while learning to recognize risks and anomalies in their environment.
Risk Management
Each trip includes a thorough risk assessment of every location and activity of a trip. This includes action plans and mitigation strategies. Every trip includes medical staff with at least a certification in Wilderness First Aid. Individual medical plans are prepared for students with medical conditions, as long as their needs can be reasonably accommodated on a trip. Padma trip leaders are trained in group management, team building, crisis response, and situational awareness. Trips typically include at least one international trip leader, an assistant trip leader, chaperones, and a trip manager. Trip managers do not attend trips, but oversee flights, coordinate with consulting professionals if needed (doctors, mental health specialists, etc.), communicate with the trip leadership team, and are the primary contact for families during trips. Trip members and parents must read and sign Padma’s student agreement, which outlines expectations of behavior and possible consequences, including potential expulsion from a trip. Students are also required to participate in pre-trip online or in-person group culture and team building activities to help establish a positive and healthy environment for their trip. Medical and emergency evacuation insurance is provided for all trip members as part of trip tuition.
About Us
Padma Organization is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded in Park City, Utah in 2006. In addition to operating humanitarian and environmental projects around the world, Padma designs and leads service and adventure education trips for high school and college students. Service trips focus on accomplishing vital projects operated by Padma or partner organizations. Adventure education trips focus on activities unique to specific locations and learning or training in subjects intended to inspire college course studies or potential career trajectories.