2023

Today, Reach the World remains at the cutting edge of virtual exchange, bringing the world into hundreds of K-12 classrooms each year through a variety of programs. The Traveler Program matches college-aged travelers and K-12 classrooms in a personalized 1:1 model. The Explorer Program connects classrooms with adventurous explorers who are sharing research from the field and modeling STEM careers. The Meet the World Program invites Fulbright’s foreign scholars into U.S. classrooms for intimate cultural exchanges. From the most isolated communities to the heart of urban centers, more U.S. students are forming positive, personal connections with the world than ever before.

Read more in Reach the World’s most recent annual reports:

• 2020-2021 Reach the World Annual Report
• 2019-2020 Reach the World Annual Report

By 2009, technology improvements allowed Reach the World to begin engaging hundreds of new travelers around the globe. In partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program and Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, RTW began matching volunteer travelers who are studying, working or exploring abroad with individual K-12 classrooms. Since 2009, thousands of travelers have shared their journeys online with more than 35,000 youth in the U.S., publishing more than 20,000 first-person travelogues in the process. By using technology to enable youth to form relationships with global travelers, RTW sparked a process of personal development that can truly be described as “reaching” the world.

1998

Reach the World (RTW) was founded by Heather Halstead and Marc Gustafson. During its first ten years, RTW operated a single adventure journey per year, connected to hundreds of classrooms. RTW’s first such journey was the world circumnavigation of the Makulu, 43-foot sailboat operated by young educators who shared their adventures online, for the first time in history, with public school classrooms in underserved communities in the U.S.