Since 2018, the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (UCCS) has partnered with Serve The World Today (STWT) to give students, alumni, and faculty the opportunity to make a global impact through immersive service-learning experiences in Guatemala. Together, we’ve successfully hosted three Bottle School Trips, bringing members of the UCCS community into direct collaboration with rural Guatemalan communities to build sustainable schools using eco-bricks.

As part of their new Nonprofit HUB, UCCS is opening this opportunity to the broader Colorado Springs community, welcoming anyone who wants to take part in future trips—even between official UCCS-hosted trips.

The next UCCS-specific trip will take place in early 2027, and this page will be updated with exact dates as soon as they are confirmed. In the meantime, we invite you to join any of our public trips to continue making an impact.

How kids and communities build bottle schools

Pictures from our previous bottle school trips

Join a Bottle School Trip

 
The cost of the bottle school trip is $1,499 per person. What does this include?

Information about your trip

Please make sure you read all the information on this web site, including the Information section and the FAQ.

Want to know more?

Visit the Hug It Forward web site to find out all about bottle schools.

Fundraising for bottle schools

You might also like to fundraise for Hug It Forward bottle schools. Fundraising for bottle schools is optional – it is not a requirement of participating in a bottle school trip.

If you choose to fundraise, we suggest a $250 fundraising goal, but some people choose to do more or less than this. It’s really up to you – how much you think your friends and families can give, how creative you can be, and how much time you’re prepared to put into it.

See more information about fundraising.