You Can DEFINITELY Write a College Essay About Your Summer Travel or Service Trip

Every year, countless college counselors and writing tutors tell high school seniors not to write about their teen travel tours and summer service trips...

​But this advice is shortsighted and wrong.

As I wrote in a recent Paved With Verbs blog post, There are no bad essay topics. Only bad essays.

Like, sure. Lots of kids who have had any kind of abroad experience want to write an essay about it. The topic is "cliche" for a reason:

Our early travel experiences change and define us.

We want to write about our experience because it's one of the coolest, craziest, most educational things we've ever done. Because magic happens when we travel. Because the relationships we form with fellow campers and counselors when we're alone, possibly for the first time, overseas, also possibly for the first time...

We bond.

Students cry when they say goodbye, even if it's only been a week -- because, in the words of one woman whose sources may or may not be scholarly (we started talking after she admitted to eavesdropping on me in a coffee shop), "A week of travel produces a year's worth of memories."

Not to mention -- this probably is the first time you've "seen real poverty." This probably is the first time you've realized just how much you have.

Jaded old adults will scoff at you for feeling this way... almost as though they can't remember their first abroad experience. 

So how do you write an essay about a topic countless other students also write about -- and still manage to stand out?

You have to write a study abroad/teen travel/service trip essay that only you could write. You do that by connecting the trip to larger themes, projects, goals, and relationships in your life.

Here's an example I wrote in How to Write EPIC, UNFORGETTABLE Teen Travel and Service Trip Essays. The hypothetical student recently took the AP Economics exam, is a member of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and intends to major in Econ in college. 
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Common Application, Prompt 4: Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
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Ahh -- Pizza Napoletana! The very essence of Italian cooking! Prior to our meal, Giulia, the restaurant owner, had explained that the tomatoes must be grown in the volcanic soil of San Marzano sul Sarno, while the dough must be crowned only with D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) Mozzarella di Bufala Campana. She’d shown us her traditional wood-fired oven while her two daughters giggled by her side.

After the explosion of history and flavor that was our dinner, my Teen Travel group erupted into conversation… but I slipped away. Around the corner, Giulia and her employee were tidying up the kitchen.

“Thank you for dinner. It was delicious,” I said in slow survival Italian (I’d downloaded some Pimsleurs courses before the trip).

She smiled at my attempt. Soon, we were discussing the joys and challenges of her work. When I asked if she had ever considered expanding her business, she thumbed a stain on her apron.

“No. In Italy, family-run business can’t get credit.”

I’d known it was a stormy market -- before the trip, I’d asked my Economics teacher if he had any reading recommendations that would help me understand Italy’s economy, and had worked my way through his list in the three weeks before my departure from JFK. I’d reveled in (and sometimes stared in confusion at) the details of bailouts and austerity… but never considered how it might affect small businesses. 

That night, I did some additional research. I learned that, even though Italy’s economy is recovering, the big banks are still unable to offer capital to small businesses -- the very ones that were making my service trip so memorable. 

This sparked my interest in the most basic of financial products: the bank loan. Is this something that could be profitable in Italy -- or is it still too risky? Is this a problem that is ripe for innovation? I emailed my FBLA advisor to find out. “Aren’t you taking AP Stats in the fall?” she asked. “Why don’t you collect some data during your trip so you have something real to analyze?”

So began my senior project, “The Case for Small Business Lending in Italy.” Compiling survey data for 30 minutes each night after my fellow travelers had collapsed into their beds was exhausting -- thank Jupiter for marocchino and caffe corretto! But it was intellectually stimulating and interpersonally meaningful to discuss small business ownership with the vendors who always went the extra mile, even for a loud and boisterous group of American teenagers.

Upon returning home, I had the opportunity to relive my trip every day. I learned to use MAXQDA software to qualitatively analyze survey results, and had the chance to apply what I was learning in Stats to real-world problems. I began reading about non-traditional small business lenders, like Cabbage and Blue Vine -- and after I finish this essay, I’ll start working on my cover letter for internships with them this summer, because I am sincerely excited about being able to offer fast, cheap loans to bold entrepreneurs who just want to make a living sharing their passions with the world. 

The obvious takeaway of this essay is that I went to Italy on a service trip and discovered an interesting problem I am still trying to solve. But -- who knows? When I arrive at college and begin taking classes on topics from Bioethics to Bob Dylan, I might discover a completely different path. 

Whatever I become an expert in, whomever I decide to help, my ability to look a little deeper, start conversations with teachers, mentors, and strangers, and follow through with my curiosities, will truly empower me to make a difference.

See how the service trip connects to her goals? See how she's going to get amazing recommendations from her teachers that show she is curious and creative, and that she creates opportunities and queries everywhere she goes? How she didn't just take what was placed in front of her, but looked deeper for additional meaning, inspiration, and ideas?

She's the student I would want on my campus -- even though she wrote her essay on a "taboo" topic.

For more advice on writing college essays, check out the full post on Paved With Verbs. And have an epic summer!