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Rocky Mountain Seminar

Best Practices in Global Education

A Professional Development Seminar For Educators

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The Flatirons Boulder Rocky Mountain Seminar

4 Days

A leadership retreat for administrators, directors of global studies, and coordinators of travel abroad and community service. Tuition includes meals and lodging.

Under the Flatirons...

Each autumn, we host a four-day seminar for educators in the majestic Rocky Mountains of Colorado, focusing on best practices in global  education.

What are the best practices for managing risks involved in facilitating student travel? How do we add value to each multicultural opportunity at home and away? How do we facilitate activities that encourage empathy, self-awareness and leadership in our students?

In the Rocky Mountain Seminar we bring the best of our training practices to you and offer a toolkit of activities and lessons that you can share with your faculty and students either in the classroom or in the field. We are excited to share what we have learned in our thirty years of experience facilitating global experiential education programming.

Our Rocky Mountain Seminar is an interactive salon that encourages participants to come with tools that have been successful in their global programs to share with others.

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Highlights & Outcomes

Risk Management

Delivering appropriate challenges for student growth within your institution’s risk tolerance

Student Growth & Learning

Design programs that maximize learning outside of the comfort zone

Community Engagement

Center reciprocity and relationship with local communities

Take The Learning Home

Create strategies for integrating the learning back home

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Our Journey

Below the sandstone cliffs of Boulder’s Flatirons, we will host seminar participants in the Community House and surrounding cottages of the Colorado Chautauqua Association. Leaning into our pedagogy of placed based learning and experiential education, we take an excursion into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, with views of the jagged snow-capped mountains of the Continental Divide. It’s there, in the community of inspired and passionate educators, with grand views and mountain air, that set the conditions for an exceptional experience.

Participants explore a wide range of topics, including risk management, cross-cultural community engagement, learning service, and student learning and group dynamics, and more. Together we build a shared understanding of how to better prepare students before travel, facilitate difficult conversations during programs, and create meaningful post-program integration.

Beyond its content, what sets the Rocky Mountain Seminar apart is the community it builds. Educators consistently highlight the power of the intimate setting, where every voice is heard and the collective wisdom of the group elevates each conversation. The experience is both rejuvenating and practical—equipping participants with concrete tools while reconnecting them to the deeper purpose of their work. For anyone designing or leading transformative student travel or global learning programs, this seminar offers not just a toolkit, but a professional reset rooted in the values of empathy, curiosity, and responsible engagement.

Daily Itinerary

Rocky Mountain Seminar

Sample Itinerary
The following is a sample itinerary based on past courses; actual itineraries may vary.

  • Day 1

    Fly to Denver International Airport. Please plan to arrive by 3:30 pm for transfer to Boulder. We will begin with a group welcome and introduction to the seminar over dinner, followed by a brief tone-setting activity.

  • Day 2

    This day will be filled with foundational workshops in student-centered programming, risk management, and core curriculum. We begin with an overview of the student experience, demonstrating the emotional, intellectual, and physical growth that can happen in a well-designed experience. We shift our lens to focus on risk management, and on risk as growth. We also examine case-studies from past courses to identify the layers of institutional risk management. That afternoon we explore an intentional course design processes beginning with key learning outcomes and working backwards to develop a progression of carefully facilitated experiences that will foster our outcomes. We explore topics of learning through challenge, “failing forward” and student leadership. We end the day with an optional dinner at a Sherpa’s Nepali Restaurant featuring student voices and time for relaxing and networking with fellow educators.

  • Day 3

    After breakfast, we head into the high country, to the historical mining town of Gold Hill where the roaring fireplaces of a century-old hand built lodge welcome us for the day. Today we focus on developing a toolbox of activities focused on facilitation, pedagogy in action and program components. In the afternoon we embark on an in-depth look at international service learning and community partnerships. We will host participants at the Gold Hill Inn for an optional evening of exquisite local cuisine and blue-grass music.

  • Day 4

    Our final day will be spent back at Chautauqua Park. We wrap up the seminar with time in working groups to summarize our learning, and make a plan for moving forward. We’ll enjoy closing remarks, and depart on a short excursion into the surrounding open space (weather permitting) for a final transference session. After lunch, our seminar will finish up at 1 pm allowing time for travel home. Please book departing flights after 4pm.

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Letter to a Future Educator

“This was, by far, the best professional development program I have ever had the chance to be a part of. The ‘take-aways’ of applicable materials and activities that will benefit our faculty, administration, as well as our students, is above and beyond what I could have imagined.”

Maren Anderson
Director of Experiential Education, Drew School
Rocky Mountain Seminar

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“Dragons has it all figured out. Don’t re-invent the wheel. Instead, do yourself a favor and go to this conference and learn how it SHOULD be done.”

Kurt Meyer
Rocky Mountain Seminar

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Featured Instructors

Our instructors are more than guides—they’re mentors, educators, and trusted companions on every journey. Each member of our team is thoroughly vetted, background-checked, and trained in our unique pedagogy and risk management practices. With an average of over four years living abroad and fluency in local languages, our instructors return to communities time and again, serving as meaningful cross-cultural liaisons.

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