“But what is the added value of sending a child to South America over, say, a volunteer program in SD?”
Is SD South Dakota, it’s be find or course, I mentioned SA and Africa because those can be very tough experiences, esp if you have to know the language (many of these you don’t run into native English speakers), threat of malaria, hot, adjust to food, while you do volunteer work, help a village or try to help places in Africa with clean water. I do see the point when others say you could do a lot of that a home, locally and get the impact. My thing is that adcoms think these kids are staying a 5 star hotel, with beach views and gourmet food, and it’s really the opposite.