After high school, Matthew Yam found himself in places much different from his home in Los Angeles. For 13 weeks in 2018, he stayed with host families in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. In the former, Yam helped build aqueducts in the mountains and latrines in the sugarcane fields. In the latter, he lived with a cacao farmer without electricity or internet access, helping the farmer start building a garage by hand. “I was super scared in the beginning—I questioned myself those first two nights,” says Yam, 19. “But that faded. I got used to the environment, and I learned to be adaptable.” Yam is one of hundreds of students to apply or graduate from a college program abroad offered by Verto Education, based in Berkeley, Calif. The company hopes to improve its study-abroad offerings with a newly raised $6.3 million seed round of funding. First Round Capital, GSV Ventures, 10xImpact, Box Group and others participated in the round.