About Us: The Kindred Difference

We believe young people learn differently when they're engaged, cared for and having a really good time. At The Kindred Collective, every experience is designed with a purpose—even the fun stuff. A game can build confidence. A road trip can build community. A new city can become a history lesson. A campus visit can change what a young person believes is possible. And something as ridiculously fun as BEAT THE BOMB can put students in a room where they have to communicate, problem-solve, work as a team and figure things out together before the paint starts flying.

That's Kindred.

We create experiences young people actually want to be part of, while being thoughtful about what they're learning, practicing and discovering along the way. Sometimes the lesson is obvious. Sometimes they're too busy having fun to realize there's one happening at all.

There are a lot of moving pieces behind a Kindred experience—and that's by design. Our founder, Remeta Hicks-Montgomery, brings together a background in social work, youth and community leadership, systems thinking and travel planning. Long before Kindred, she worked as a travel professional, learning the details behind building experiences that move people smoothly from one place to the next and that combination shows up everywhere.

The route matters. The hotels matter. Where we eat matters. How long students spend on a bus matters. The order of the campuses matters. The activities between them matter. Who travels with our students matters. Even the moments when everybody gets to relax, laugh and just be teenagers matter. We design experiences our students still talk about. And we know that families are trusting us with what matters most to them. That's why safety, healthcare support, thoughtful logistics, experienced leadership and genuine care aren't afterthoughts. They're built into the experience from the beginning.

HBCU access is at the heart of our tours, but education doesn't stop when the campus tour ends. Kindred is unapologetically Black-centered, and our experiences bring together education, history, social justice, culture, travel, community-building and joy. That might mean standing on the grounds where history happened. Eating our way through New Orleans. Navigating a team challenge. Exploring a new city. Meeting an HBCU student who tells the truth about campus life. Having a conversation on the bus that nobody planned. Or laughing until somebody cries during a Kindred Game Night. Those moments count too. Because we're preparing young people for college, leadership and life—and some of the most important things they'll learn won't happen behind a desk.

Seeing something new can open a young person's mind. Preparation helps them know what to do with what they've seen. That's why our HBCU tours are surrounded by the Kindred Development Series, where trusted community leaders and partners help students strengthen five areas:

Know Yourself. Know Your Voice. Know Your Money. Know Your Options. Know Your Next Move.

Students develop practical skills around emotional intelligence, communication, financial literacy, college readiness, self-advocacy and decision-making before and after they travel. The trip is part of the experience—not the end of it.

We also believe something pretty simple: our young people deserve nice things.

Safe transportation. Comfortable accommodations. Good food. Thoughtful programming. Great experiences. Adults who are prepared to care for them. Opportunities to see beautiful places, try new things and experience a world bigger than the one they already know. We don't see those things as extras. They communicate something important about how we see our students and what we believe they deserve.

Kindred's roots go back more than a decade, to HBCU tours that introduced Detroit-area students to colleges across the country. Since then, hundreds of young people have traveled with us—and we've had the privilege of watching students we once put on buses go on to college, graduate, begin careers, build families and create lives of their own. We've learned a lot along the way. And we're still building.

What hasn't changed is the care behind it: creating the kind of experiences we would want for our own children—thoughtful, safe, culturally grounded, exciting and unforgettable.

SHAPING FUTURES. BUILDING LEGACY. POWERED BY LOVE.