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WorldStrides was established through the merger of six of the country's
leading student travel companies. These six companies are: Lakeland
Tours (Charlottesville, VA), American Student Travel (Houston, TX),
Educational Field Studies, (Incline Village, NV), Heritage Education
& Festivals (Salt Lake City, UT), Bowl Games of America (Salt
Lake City, UT) and Wider Horizons (Orlando, FL).
In 1967, Phil Wendel created Lakeland Tours to address the void
in student educational travel. Through the 70's and 80's, consumers
responded and the company rapidly expanded. By 1990, Lakeland had
more than 100 full-time employees and was working with schools from
all 50 states and several foreign countries. In 1998, to ensure
the financial resources needed to pursue an aggressive acquisition
strategy, Lakeland partnered with First Union Capital Partners.
Lakeland's first acquisition, AST, helped the company to rapidly
expand its customer base in the Southwest and on the West Coast.
This acquisition also brought in the number two player in the market
for educational trips to Washington, D.C. and the number one player
in trips to New York City. By acquiring AST, Lakeland clearly established
itself as the dominant company in domestic educational student travel.
EFS was founded in 1969 by Larry Lusvardi who also saw a void in
student educational travel. His mission was to offer thematic programs
based on state and national curriculum standards. In this pursuit,
EFS became the only company in the country offering accredited travel
programs. By acquiring EFS, Lakeland gained access to accredited
programs and significantly diversified its product offerings.
The acquisition of EFS lead to the pursuit of Heritage Education
and Festivals and subsequently the Bowl Games of America (BGA) By
combining the performing arts programs from EFS, Heritage, and BGA,
Lakeland established itself as the clear industry leader in performance
tours.
In June 2000, Lakeland acquired Wider Horizons, founded by Lyman
Carter, to extend the company's leadership position in the field
of educational programs for science. At the time, Wider Horizons
was second to EFS in educational science-focused travel programs.
Effective January 2001, Lakeland brought all of its acquired companies
together under a single brand, WorldStrides. The company's new tagline
became "DISCOVER YOUR WORLD" which incorporated the concepts
of learning through discovery and traveling the world.
WorldStrides is jointly owned by company management and by the private
equity affiliates of two of the country's leading financial institutions;
First Union Capital Partners and BancAmerica Capital Investors.
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