Some high-schoolers spend their summer vacations at the beach or playing with friends or just relaxing.

Texel Feder worked in a lifetime worth of learning and volunteering on her break -- and came away with a whole new outlook on life.

Feder, a 15-year-old who will be a sophomore at Capital High School this fall, took a pair of trips through the Girl Scouts of America in July -- one a cultural trip to Pune, India, and the other a trip to Costa Rica in conjunction with Outward Bound that combined outdoor adventure and service to that country's poor farm communities.

While in India, Feder spent a day at a shelter for poor and abandoned women; learned about the country's culture, religion and traditions; and visited some of the area's important art and cultural sites.

Though the places she went were very poverty-stricken one of the constants was the friendliness and openness of the people.

Feder told a story of a woman she met who was living in a tiny, narrow house that was smaller than the four-member Feder family's modest home. The woman told her there were "only" 11 people living in the house. There used to be 13.

"It definitely made me realize that money and stuff aren't as important as everyone makes it seem," she said. "Family and friends are really all you need. That's probably the biggest lesson.

"They're open to everyone and everything, even if they're of different religions. They're just really accepting. That's something we can all learn to do better, just accept people for who they are and what they believe in."

Among the highlights for Feder was seeing the home of Mahatma Gandhi, who she says is one of her heroes. She said being in his home helped her focus on his great life and how she could emulate him.

"It wasn't just sightseeing," she said. "We actually got to learn a lot, which I enjoyed, getting to know things about the culture. I've always wanted to go to India. The culture's so much different than anything here. It's always a place I've really been interested in."

Earning a spot on the trips required Feder to go through a competitive application process with other Girl Scouts from across the country.

Sondra Hines, curator of education at the Holter Museum of Art, wrote a letter of reference for Feder's application.

Hines said Feder has been volunteer through the Holter's Art Smarts program, assisting teachers in summer youth programs. Texel also helps with the Holter's Saturday Use-eums for 3- to 7-year- olds, the museum's annual spring Kidworks Festival of the Arts, and Family Days, in which kids can meet and work with artists involved in special events at the Holter.

"She's just kind of a natural when it comes to kids and classroom situations," Hines said. "She's very self-directed and self-motivated. She's on my short list. When I need somebody, she's usually game for doing it."

After returning from India in mid-July, Feder had only a few days of rest before heading to Costa Rica.

Feder has lived in Helena for several years and previously lived in Ashland, Ore. But she said until the Costa Rica trip she'd never been much of an outdoor adventurer.

That would change quickly.

The trip included 11 days of backpacking, whitewater rafting, surfing, and rappelling down a 200-foot waterfall.

"That was definitely one of the scariest things I've done," she said. "The water was really cold and I kind of started hyperventilating when I went over the edge."

But the main focus of the trip was helping on projects for the Central American country's rural farming families.

Among the projects her group worked on at various homestays were building a recycling center out of bamboo, harvesting bananas at a village's communal banana plantation and hauling sugar cane down a mountain to be processed at a village's sugar processing facility.

But of all the adventures and good works, she said, a simple soccer game provided the biggest highlight.

At one homestay, Feder's group helped kids take supplies for the coming school year up to the village's school, where there was a soccer field.

"We played soccer with them," Feder said, "and then it started raining, and it was muddy and everybody was sliding in the mud. That was probably the best part of the trip. I really like soccer, but it was fun because there were little kids, 5 or 6, playing with us and their older brothers and sisters who were 16. The teacher of the school, who was 21, was there, as well as our group leaders. So it was just a big mix of people and we were just having fun."

Though the areas she visited on her trips couldn't have been different -- one urban and one very rural -- she said the people were very similar. The families in Costa Rica, she said, opened up their homes to her and her groupmates, cooked for them and generally made them feel at home.

Katherine Merrick, Feder's mother, said she encouraged her to go on the trips because it is important to her for both of her daughters to experience as much of the world as they can.

"It sounds scary to leave your family and leave the country, but the benefits cannot be measured," Merrick said.

Feder there were a number of organizations without whose help she said she couldn't have gone on the trips. Among them are Helena Elks Lodge #193, Helena Exchange Club, Capital City Optimist Club, Girl Scout Firetower Service Unit, Big Sky Girl Scout Council, Helena Girl Scout Troop 506 and the National Girl Scout Office

Also, her grandfather, Arthur Merrick, provided her with financial help to pay for the travel.

Feder said coming back to Helena was strange, because after a few short weeks, she felt completely changed, but nobody else she knew in town had. Talking with her friends about the same old things teenagers talk about just didn't appeal to her anymore.

"I found myself thinking, 'Why are you still talking about this. There's a whole world out there,' " she said. "I just got to see a little tiny bit of it, but it made me want to travel more, and learn more."

Features editor Joe Menden: 447-4087 or joe.menden@helenair.com