Since summer 1989, VISIONS has maintained the highest quality and consistency in our offerings of summer opportunities for teens. VISIONS was one of the first organizations to offer teen summer experiences with explicit focus on ambitious community service in culture-immersion settings. When we created VISIONS, we always envisioned "serious" service. We aimed to offer the very best teen summer programs abroad and in the U.S., carefully crafted experiences that intentionally blend dynamic components: challenging service, cultural immersion, exploration, and an outright nod to the importance of community-building among participants and their leaders. We created a mini-Peace Corps "template" with empirical knowledge gained from working with teens over two decades on a 350-acre farm in Central Pennsylvania where, among other activities, the kids have built durable structures under staff supervision: pole barns, building additions, decking, an octagonal "circle" building for evening gatherings, fencing, railings, pig and chicken barns, and more.

We held firmly to creating a program framework for VISIONS that would acknowledge and integrate healthy, above-board communication within the team of students and staff living, working, exploring, and playing together.

Once the foundation of VISIONS service summer opportunities for teens was firmly in place, we added select custom programs for high schools and other youth groups year-round, separate from VISIONS summer programs. And now VISIONS has a unique Cambodia Gap Year in 2012 for graduating high school students and college students.

Growth for growth's sake has not played the over-arching role in VISIONS. Instead, we have always believed the essential, grounding reason for the high quality of our programs and for any justifiable expansion, is an approach that pays careful, considered attention to quality. This is no small task considering all the factors at play in service work and cross-cultural learning in under-resourced communities at home and abroad, and all the human factors that come into play in such a context. Quality takes time. VISIONS has moved forward for over two decades with care and deliberate intention. By doing so, we have served our participants and local partners well. A VISIONS program is an investment that promises palpable, valuable returns to your child.

The volume and variety of summer opportunities for teens has grown at a tremendous clip in the past two decades. VISIONS has stayed the course, as evidenced by continued robust enrollments, for a reason. We appreciate the respect we have earned from, and reciprocally give to, other mindful summer programs with whom we have "grown up," not to mention our many well established local partnerships on the ground in our program sites.

We often hear from parents that they are daunted by the proliferation of community service, custom, and gap year programs out there. The Internet definitely has changed the navigational search landscape. Where to start? How to choose?

In this vast landscape of appeal summer options, there is something that has not changed over time: the importance of doing one's homework. Whether it be teen travel or middle school programs abroad or at home, a gap year or a custom program, carefully browse the organization's website and other information. Speak to the directors of programs you are considering. And, it is imperative that you speak to references--past participants and their parents, referral professionals familiar with the history of the organization. Trust your instincts about what you read and hear. Ask us as many questions as you desire.

In the end, we are confident that VISIONS will be among your top choices.