As parents of teenagers, you’re constantly navigating the delicate balance of giving your kids both deep roots and strong wings. With independence on the horizon, every experience helps to equip these young adults with the life skills they need for what lies ahead.
The Ambassadors of Music experience offers student performers so much more than an opportunity to see the best of Europe. This adventure is a global classroom, where fledgling travelers test their wings, grow in maturity and come home changed.
Today, we’ll share the experiences of three parents who joined their teens on the Ambassadors of Music tour. We’ll see the trip through their eyes and learn how the tour impacted their students.
“She could immerse herself into the culture of a community.”
Jessica Meadows joined her daughter on the AOM trip and watched her world expand with every new experience, as her eyes were opened to new places and cultures.
On this trip, I really felt that my daughter was able to experience culture in a different way than she could read about in the classroom. She could immerse herself into the culture of a community. She could experience, talk, taste, eat, listen.
The trip really gave her the time to experience it in the way that she wanted to. There was enough free time for the students to go out in smaller groups to experience things that they had a piqued interest in, whether was going to a museum or shopping or trying a certain food at a certain restaurant. They would do their research together, and then they would go out together.
Brett Danke sent his older son on an AOM trip and then joined his daughter for her experience a few years later. He’s had the opportunity to see both of his children grow in different ways following their unique AOM adventures.
It’s real-life experience. You can read about this stuff in books, you can see it in videos. But to actually experience it – to understand the accents, the different cultures – is something else. You can go to London and think everybody’s going to speak English, but there are so many varieties – talk about a melting pot of cultures!
“These audiences want to hear us. They want to come and see.”
Mandy Palmer spent two summers with Ambassadors of Music, joining both her son and daughter on their respective adventures. She came home with immense gratitude for the European audiences that welcomed the Ambassadors in every city they visited.
It’s not like a concert that you put on at your high school, where this is your crowd. These are people who are coming and going, and they chose to stop. I think it surprised some students on our tour. This wasn’t their parents or anyone who was forced to come. These audiences don’t know this music necessarily, but the concert starts and people start to fill in. They want to hear us. They want to come and see.
Jessica was overwhelmed by the pride she felt – not just in her own child performing, but in the larger group representing their state on stages so far from home.
It’s bigger than just a group of people traveling. Our kids have this sense of pride that they were representing their country, their school, their teachers, the programs that they came from.
In the communities that we visited, you would see children dancing and singing along. You would see elderly people dancing and singing, families coming together. As a parent listening and watching, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you can’t have any other way.
“It gives them the confidence to move forward as a young adult.”
Following their experiences, Mandy recognized a fresh confidence in her children that she knows they’ll carry into life beyond high school.
Both of my kids learned confidence. We’ve traveled throughout the United States, so they know how to read maps and things like that, but they had to navigate a little bit more, especially when things are not in English.
You just see their confidence grow throughout the trip. They’re a little nervous in London. They get a little nervous in Paris still, and then they start to get out and think, ‘Oh, I got this.’ They have this newfound confidence that’s just amazing – I’ve seen it.
Brett echoed that sentiment, having witnessed his son’s growth following his solo AOM experience.
When my son went, we did not go along, so he was traveling without us through five different countries with new friends and leaders. He had more independence after that, confidence and more maturity.
Jessica treasures the experience she had with her daughter on tour but also encourages parents to send their students on their own as well.
If you’re a parent and you’re considering having your child go on this trip, let them go. If you’re able to go with them and share in that experience, that’s great. But for those kids who are going on their own, it gives them an experience to really branch out their social skills, meet new people and travel.
They will definitely come back as a changed person. Because they’re given that freedom to explore and understand what other cultures are like, and it really gives them the confidence to move forward as a young adult.
Thank you to Jessica, Mandy and Brett for sharing your experiences with us. Their stories echo so many we’ve heard from Ambassadors of Music parents over the years about the impact this adventure has on students and their families.
To learn more about the Ambassadors of Music program in your state, visit our States page. We’d love for your child to join our next AOM adventure!