Experiential learning is increasingly recognized as a key pathway for developing students’ competencies, agency, and socio-emotional growth in secondary education. In Vietnam, it is mandated by the 2018 General Education Curriculum, but the quality of implementation remains uneven across contexts. Although existing studies largely focus on instructional design, evidence on school-level management, including planning, leadership, resource allocation, partnerships, and assessment, remains fragmented. This review aims to systematically synthesize existing Vietnamese and international scholarship to clarify major management dimensions, identify research gaps, and generate contextualized implications for ethnic minority boarding schools in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidance, this systematic literature review synthesizes 41 studies (19 Vietnamese and 22 international) to provide a balanced account of both the pedagogy and governance of experiential learning activities. Descriptive mapping shows a rapid increase in Vietnamese publications after 2018, alongside a mature international evidence base covering achievement, motivation, civic learning, and technology-enhanced experiential environments. Thematic synthesis identifies five recurring themes: (1) pedagogical designs and outcomes, (2) planning and curriculum alignment, (3) leadership and professional capacity building, (4) partnerships and resource governance, and (5) assessment and program evaluation. To bridge learning theory and management theory, the review proposes an integrated analytical framework that embeds Kolb’s experiential learning cycle within the Context-Input-Process-Output management system. Implications are discussed for ethnic minority boarding schools in the Mekong Delta, emphasizing culturally responsive experiential design, equity-oriented resource planning, co-governance with communities, and competency-based evaluation routines.