BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Seventeen-year-old Fermin Nadal has never left New York or ridden an airplane before, yet this summer he hopes to leave Brownsville behind and travel across the globe to Japan.

First, he's going to need $68,400. "I want to meet different people and see how their lifestyle is," said Nadal, a junior at Frederick Douglass Academy VII in Brownsville. "I'm also excited to see the train stations. It might be normal to them, but not to me."

Fermin is one of 18 students that English teacher Bijoun Eric Jordan hopes to take on a one-week trip to Japan this July, if he can raise the money. That's why Jordan has organized fundraising parties, art auctions, kickball games, raffles and a GoFundMe campaign — which had raised $3,524 by March 26 —and his students are working extra jobs to raise the $68,400 they need to pay for the trip.

"The reason I do it, travel is a whole different kind of education. " Jordan said. "You're giving someone an education that alters who they are." The A.P. Literature teacher has been dreaming of a seven-year, seven-continent tour since he returned from his first international class trip to Spain, made possible by GoFundMe donors who kicked in $40,000 in 2017.

The students who went came back changed, he said.

"They walk a little differently, there's an extra confidence, a little twinkle in the eye," said Jordan. "It comes from having done something adventurous and unique."

Javon Carlos, 17, almost didn't go to Spain last year, not just because money was tight, but because he'd never been on an airplane before and was terrified of heights. But Jordan convinced Carlos it would be worth it to face his fear, and a fellow junior — Idulnejia Rutledge— promised she'd sit next to him during the take-off.