Which division are you and your team entering?Main Division
Idea NameAlaska English Adventures
Team Member Name(s)Brad Schmitz
Idea SummaryAlaska English Adventures (AEA) was founded in 2017 in Anchorage. My company creates summertime outdoor adventure tours for English language learners from all over the world. AEA is the only language immersion tour company in Alaska.
The idea for AEA sparked from my experience teaching ESL in Seoul, Korea from 2004 to 2005. Prior to Seoul, I lived in Alaska, where I learned how great camping in Denali National Park, fishing in Seward, and hiking all over the state was. While in Korea, the large budget that the country has for overseas language programs, came to my attention. In January of 2017, my friend Sam and I created a website and began designing tours to bring the ESL and outdoor adventure world of Alaska together.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I had not sold any ESL tour seats. By June, I started up a few pen pal programs between kids from Alaska and other countries, hoping to make potential business connections. Over the past 2.5 years I have matched up youth from a Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scout Troop, church youth group, and schools in Seward-Homer-Fairbanks-and Anchorage with classes in Germany, 2 schools in Turkey, Poland, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Kenya, Brazil, and Martinique. I have mailed care packages to schools in these countries and many more over this time.