ISP Turns Twenty: 20 years of eye-opening education & travel
This year marks 20 years of International Study Programs. That’s 20 years of high-impact study trips that have helped shape future business leaders throughout the world.
From humble beginnings, we’ve now taken 50,000+ participants across 140+ destinations worldwide on over 2000 immersive study trips. To celebrate the occasion, we’re exhibiting our key milestones and memories that we’ve shared with our trusted clients, partners, and employees over the years.
“Wow! What a ride it’s been! My fondest memories center around the hard work of the early years and the communication challenges like having to crawl under the desk every day at 4pm to unplug the phone line and connect to the internet for an hour, or organising my first sales trip to the US by fax. I didn’t appreciate just how extraordinary these early days were – the long hours and hard work brought a lot of frustration but also a lot of joy and learning – but looking back, these are the moments I truly cherish.
Key moments such as winning our first multi-year contract with Belmont University back in 2001 also stick out in my mind. I was at an internet café in Dublin and had to re-read the email several times to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake and then audibly WHOOPED. Since then, we’ve had so many big moments – launching China for the first time, opening the Hong Kong office, moving into our incredible new offices which changed so much for ISP.
Education is going through massive disruption at the moment and the next couple of years will see tremendous change and opportunity in the industry – I want ISP to continue to provide truly unique and inspiring experiences for our clients and our team; to continue in thought leadership and innovation in order to effect more meaningful, engaging, inspiring and relevant leadership education globally.”
– Viktoria Kish, Founder & MD
“I have been incredibly lucky to be part of this living environment that gave me some amazing experiences. I will probably never forget things like eating scorpions with IPADE in Beijing, snorkeling with 14-meter-long whale sharks in the Philippines, diving with giant mantas in Thailand, seeing the sunset over Hong Kong, Cape Town or Montevideo or teaching migrant kids English in Shanghai.”
– Tomas Chalupnik, Finance Director
“It’s been an amazing experience with a million things to remember. I knew very little when I started and learned lots over the years while gaining wonderful experiences and opportunities to grow each day. So much has changed and much has been accomplished but for me, the thing that counts most is seeing how studying abroad changes us all. I look forward to what’s next for ISP and I will embrace it with energy, passion and dedication, because ISP is exactly where I want to be!”
– Jana Vodickova, Director of Sales & Operations
“Starting here as a 21-year old, I never imagined accomplishing so much and becoming a part of the company’s growth and success. I have traveled the world (from Hungary and China to South Africa and Vietnam), met lots of fun, exciting and inspirational people and have grown tremendously both as a person and as a professional.
I will never forget ISP’s 10th Anniversary party with helium balloons and a speed boat, and will always remember all the office pranks we played on each other. I will keep looking forward to more travels, having a greater impact on our clients and students and working with more young, energetic, creative and passionate people.”
– Monika Z Vodickova, Head of Sales
“ISP and I met two years after it was born. I’ve always enjoyed matching each group’s background with the right speakers, so they all learn from each other and grow as open-minded professionals. We’ve grown from travelling with our files saved on a flash disc to using the cloud, from sending emails from inet cafes to sending them from any device, from printing info materials to having a fabulous app, from being a start-up into being an SME… I’m grateful I could have experienced all that and look forward to new exciting possibilities with industry 4.0, digital transformation, blockchain and more!”
– Bara Pelcova, Senior Program Manager
It was also an enormous pleasure to get together during an anniversary party in August to share our successes, failures and memories with a handful of past employees, as well as current partners, consultants and friends.
Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to all our clients, partners, consultants and employees for making the past two decades so enjoyable, prosperous and enlightening. Here’s to the next 20 years!
If you are interested in crafting (more) impactful experiences together, please contact us today.