Academic Treks: Adventure Brazil

About Us | Info for Program Directors

Expert Camp & Trip Recommendations
Call 617-264-0939

Choice Camps Recommendation of Academic Treks: Adventure Brazil

Backed by sixteen years of experience in running educational programs for thousands of teenagers, Academic Treks combines the finest elements of experiential learning, traditional classroom learning, and service learning with wilderness adventure, international travel, and cultural exchange to create extraordinary college-accredited expeditions. Each course includes an important community service component, and the themes of teamwork, leadership, and personal growth are interwoven in each AT experience.

Academic Treks students are fully immersed in an educational experience in a real world setting, gaining a global perspective and hands-on understanding of the topics studied. They also get a head start on college by earning college and/or community service credit and by building a host of skills they will use both in school and beyond. For students looking for an educational and exciting summer experience, Academic Treks may be the perfect choice.

Trip Description

Brazil is a land of extremes — overpopulated cities and untouched land, tremendous wealth and devastating poverty, vast natural resources and threatened rainforests. It is a country at the forefront of sustainable development, ecological conservation and the fight to preserve one of the world’s most critical environments, the Amazon Rainforest. Immerse yourselves in the colorful Brazilian cultures of Rio, Salvador and the Northern Bahia, and travel to the wild expanses of Manaus and the Amazon. Learn survival Portuguese and put it to the test as you assist with sustainable development projects and eco-tourism efforts. Academic Trek’s Adventure Brazil journey takes students 300 miles up the Rio Negro into the depths of the Amazon jungle to the indigenous tribes of the Jauaperi. Explore the crucial link of the Amazon to the global environment. This cultural and community service program will leave you with a lasting impression of Brazil’s ecological treasures, warm people and vast beauty that both captivates and invigorates its guests. Brazil never leaves the hearts of those who visit.

Staff Overview

Academic Treks leaders bring a wealth of experience to every program. They share a love for working with young people, as well as a passion for experiential learning and teaching. The average age of AT staff members is typically around 26.

The Academic Treks course design requires the use of several instructors for each program. Two AT staff members lead the trip, providing focus and continuity to the program. In-country outfitters are used to provide the local knowledge and expertise for expedition phases. These additional teachers and outfitters provide a perspective, depth of knowledge and access to resources that could not be obtained otherwise. Formal instruction is given by professional educators with experience teaching young adults through experiential and project-based learning.

Setting & Accommodations

In Salvador, travelers stay in a local hacienda. On the Rio Negro, students sleep in hammocks on Academic Trek’s boat. In the Amazon basin, students spend nights in a maloca, a traditional hut with bedrooms, bathrooms and an open area just across the river from the village. One night, students camp out in the Amazon under the rainforest canopy.

Safety Standards

Academic Treks Course Lead Instructors complete intensive staff training before the program, which includes a focus on risk management, in-country logistics, emergency protocols, leadership training, and teaching students how to integrate experiences learned on program into their everyday lives when they return home. At least one of the course leaders is a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR), Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) or Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with a minimum of 80 hours of emergency medical training.