Baja & the Coast of California
Belize
Canadian Arctic
Chile
Iceland
Namibia
2-weeks & under
Campus-Based
Climate & Sustainability
Eligible for rising 9th graders
Intensives & Workshops
New for 2025!
North America Based
Putney Classics
Science & Nature
Canadian Arctic:
Photography
Ireland: Writing
Italy: Farm to Table
Namibia: Photography
Yellowstone: Photography
Barcelona: Sports
Germany: Cars
On the MIT Campus:
Engineering & Robotics
Switzerland: CERN & Science
Leadership
Travel programs with the Smithsonian Institution for grades 8–12
Challenge yourself academically at the world's most prestigious universities
Non-profit organization offering student travel scholarships
High school youth summit focused on public health, climate change, and equity
Campus-based climate change program for grades 9–12
In an era where educational summer programs increasingly are owned by venture capital firms, we are proud to be in our third generation of family leadership. It’s exciting to have our founders’ granddaughters deeply engaged in our important work, with a great-grandson recently joining us, too. Over the course of seven decades, we feel the importance of our core mission—to change students’ lives—has grown significantly. When our parents (and Olivia and Becca’s grandparents) led that first group of 18 high school students by ship to Europe, in a world still reeling from the aftershock of World War II, they sought to usher them out of their comfort zones and teach them to embrace what is new and different. They strived to develop thoughtful and well-rounded young leaders through experiential, intellectual, emotional, and cultural engagement, while keeping them safe.
Putney invests in a carbon offset program to cover greenhouse gas emissions from all student and leader group flights. We work directly with Vermont-based NativeEnergy to identify and invest in community-scale and sustainable projects that would not otherwise be realized.
This year’s offset contributions will help fund a project to manufacture sustainable construction bricks in Madhya Pradesh, India. These blocks, called “autoclaved aerated concrete” (AAC), are more energy efficient than traditional concrete used in construction projects, and the manufacture of AAC generates 50% less greenhouse emissions than concrete.
We acknowledge that our organization and the practice of travel, more broadly, has historically benefited and continues to benefit from privilege as it relates to power, race, class, citizenship, sexual orientation, and mobility. We are committed to making genuine efforts to foster an environment that embraces the richness of human experience both within our organization and on our global travels. Our journey toward diversity, equity, and inclusion is active, ongoing, and evolving. We recognize that there are barriers we haven’t yet overcome, and we’re dedicated to addressing them by committing to the following actions:
Providing immersive summer travel programs for middle & high school students since 1951.
Putney has been the leader in student travel and educational summers for more than 70 years. As a family-run organization, our decades of experience, our dedication to quality programs, and the personal service you receive are unmatched.
We invite you to subscribe to hear about new programs and upcoming events, and start your path to the summer of a lifetime.
