Custom Group Programs – FAQs

GoBeyond is part of the Global Expeditions Group (GXG). Through challenging course design, we create environments that promote self-discovery as well as social, emotional and intellectual growth.

For over 40 years, GoBeyond, ActionQuest, and Sea|mester have consistently delivered outstanding experience based adventure and service programs. By combining hands-on learning, cooperative living and adventure travel throughout the world, we have successfully ignited the inherent leadership skills within thousands of participants.

This is what we do, yet what really sets us apart is how we do it and the results that we achieve. To understand who we are and what drives us, you need to dig a little deeper into the sum of our parts so we would encourage you to visit the individual web pages of each of our programs to learn more.

GoBeyond Student Travel – Global service adventures for high school students
ActionQuest – Sailing & scuba diving summer adventures for teens
Sea|mester – College and gap year voyages at sea

Quite a long time!

For us, it all started in the mid-1970s when Jim Stoll (founder of the original company) began a high school aboard two large schooners. Twelve years later, with children of his own, Jim moved back ashore to develop motivational programs for young adults. In the mid-eighties he once again headed to the water, to run the teen program ActionQuest.

In 1995, Jim was joined by Mike Meighan. A recent oceanography and marine biology graduate, Mike dreamed of creating a truly interactive educational experience. Using the principles of experiential education, Mike developed Sea|mester in 1998. Over the past 20 years, Sea|mester has operated more than 113,000 student days, issued over 16,000 academic credits, sailed in excess of 250,000 nautical miles and circumnavigated the world four times.

During Sea|mester’s infancy, Jim helped his teenage son, Jason, achieve a life goal – sailing around the world. Between 1997 and 1999, Jim joined his son for parts of the voyage. Their travels led to the creation of new programs in the Galapagos, Tahiti, Fiji, and Australia. Looking to give something back to the communities that had supported ActionQuest and Sea|mester for so long, in 2002, Jim and Mike teamed up with local, national and international organizations so students could embark on meaningful service projects around the world. GoBeyond had been born!

Since its inception, GoBeyond has added other amazing global locations to our program listings. As of today we now provide programming in the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Ecuador & Galapagos, Peru, Iceland, Spain, India, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, and Australia.

GoBeyond staff are dedicated experiential educators as diverse as the destinations they travel.

They come from all different backgrounds – Teachers, Marine Biologists, Language Instructors, Travel Guides, Non-Profit Professionals & Outdoor Leaders. Some of our team came to GoBeyond to travel with purpose while in high school and found their way back realizing that their life’s work was right here. Regardless of how they arrived or where they came from, they all share a strong desire to teach, inspire, discover and evolve.

Learn more about our team

Managing risk is an enormous responsibility and something we take seriously.

The GoBeyond experience is designed to be adventurous, so to say that there are no risks would be misleading. However, awareness of these inherent risks is the first step in actively managing them. Our goal is to weave risk management throughout every activity, every day and we rely on our students to do the same, taking responsibility not only for their own safety but for the safety of their fellow students.

Learn more about risk management

GoBeyond Borders

Our high school community service summer programs proudly serve in many under-resourced communities and environments throughout the world.

Explore our community service summer programs in the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Galapagos & Ecuador, Peru, Iceland, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia.

View Our Programs

That depends a lot on your group’s educational goals, time constraints, and budget!

We can offer a trip as short as just a few days to as long as you like. We’ve cut our teeth running programs up to 90-days in length for the past two decades, so we are confident we can fulfill your group’s request.

You dream it, we’ll create it.

The type of service work that your students can participate in depends on the location you select and the partner organizations we work with.

GoBeyond relies on doing the work and giving the help that is truly needed. To achieve that goal, we rely on our partnerships to steer us to the most productive and helpful projects.

Take a deeper look into the types of service we can provide

With enough advance notice, we can accommodate groups of any size, however, on average our GoBeyond programs have groups of between 8 and 30 students and chaperones.

Call us, and we will suggest options on how we can accommodate the size of your group.

That depends on certain factors such as:

• Program duration
• Group size
• Itinerary choices
• Finally, whether you decide to facilitate the experience with your own chaperones, or whether you’d like us to take care of everything

Call us to discuss your time frame and budget, and we will try to create an itinerary to meet your needs.

All programs, irrespective of duration or location include the following:

• Supervision & Instruction
• Full room & board
• Location exploration
• Team building & leadership

In many cases, yes.

For reasons of safety and risk mitigation, we have a set of comprehensive Essential Eligibility Requirements that all participants (students and chaperones) must meet to join the vessel. These can be reviewed by clicking the link below.

If you are unsure whether our program is suitable, please call us to discuss your needs, and we will work towards accommodating them if we can.

Review our eligibility criteria