People often ask us, ‘who’s the right fit for Powder Term or Surf Term?

Student-wise, it’s pretty simple, if your kid loves or is even curious about outdoor adventure, skiing and/or surfing, new challenges, and wants to make life-long friends, then they’re typically a good fit.

Students who may be on the younger end of 6th grade and/or whose immaturity may come out in the forms of aggression, stealing, verbally antagonizing others, and/or outright not listening to directions are not a good fit. Thankfully, we have rarely experienced behavior like this at any of our programs.

More frequently than bad student fit it’s the parents who are not quite a fit for Discover Term, those who fall into one or more of the following categories (if this is you we recommend that you don’t apply for your child):

• They don’t trust their kids and either knowingly or unknowingly micromanage their every move.

• They have narrow views of what they think their child is capable of.

• They only believe in traditional education where a teacher stands at the front of the room and tells their kids what to do and think.

• They care more about credentials than learning and experience (Discover Term is not an accredited educational institution and while we do provide each student a transcript at the end of their term it serves mainly as a recap of what the student did rather than a formal credit).

• They want their child’s environment tailored to them specifically.

The families who join our adventures see our website, watch our videos, join us for an Info Session and pretty instantly know that they want this adventure for their kid. May they still be scared? Perhaps, but they’re convicted that empowering their child to go out into uncharted territory and face potentially tough challenges are exactly what will help them grow and transform into the adult they’re becoming.

If you’re ready for a truly once-in-a-lifetime adventure where your child will be deeply immersed in experiences, learnings, and relationships that will impact the rest of their life, then we hope you apply to Powder Term and/or Surf Term.

For some additional context, you may want to read about Cameron (who was a student at Powder Term and Surf Term, and later came on to be one of our Junior Counselors at Powder Term) and how being a Junior Counselor at Powder Term changed her life.