Latitudes - Semester Overseas + Internship

Latitudes is Carpe Diem's seven-month personalized study abroad program that allows for a broad exposure to a fascinating region of the earth with a group of peers, followed by three months of focused solo work and travel in a country of your choice.

Semester and Internship

The LATITUDES program

We've learned through experience that group travel followed by an individual internship forms a natural progression that leads to the maturation and personal development of the individual. Both experiences provide a full palette of physical, mental, social, spiritual and cultural challenges. One, with a group, creates a cooperative learning environment and teaches students the skills they need to both live as a part of a community and to travel safely. The second semester, or individual internship, inevitably asks students to confront themselves, their own culture, and finally a foreign culture, independently though with the tools they'll have learned in their first group-semester.

Latitudes Details

Living While Overseas

While traveling abroad, LATITUDES students stay at homestays, local guesthouses or other situations arranged by internship sponsors. They generally live as the locals do or slightly better. This is generally simple, but not primitive – most of the time we have a bed to sleep in and running water. Food is basic, and the primary challenges are homesickness, culture shock, cold, heat, fellow group members, rain and bugs.

Orientation Retreat

This is a 3-day retreat that starts the program and that is held at one of our retreat centers north of San Francisco in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. During this time, students meet individually and as a group with Carpe Diem staff and trip leaders to orient to the program and academic work requirements. This is also the time that we determine the solo internship for the second half of the program. This is accomplished by reviewing the internship options through one-on-one meetings with Carpe Diem staff. The solo internship is chosen during the Orientation Retreat from a list of 99 work possibilities throughout the planet. The time frame for the internship is flexible though most students choose a three-month volunteer or internship position.

Group Semester

The group semesters for Latitudes are done in conjunction with one of our tried and true group programs going to either Central America, South America, India, East Africa, Fiji/Australia/New Zealand, or Southeast Asia. Please click on a link to the individual semester that most appeals to you for further details.

Most students doing a Latitudes year choose a program that will provide them a progression of difficulty such that they start on our English-speaking Fiji/Australia/New Zealand group semester and progress to somewhere more challenging for their individual internship (such as India or Africa). Other students jump right into the deep end and choose our Africa group semester to be followed by something way out there such as teaching English on a remote atoll in Micronesia.

Mid-Program Break

During this period students return home. They use this time to catch their breath, rest and take time to integrate the experiences of the group semester of travel, get needed immunizations, re-pack their bags for the solo internship, and make any other needed internship preparations.

Solo International Internship (12 weeks)

Following the mid-program break, participants travel on their own to do an internship, volunteer work, or study in a country of their choice. This builds on the semester group travel, and allows for tailored career or other exploration and language acquisition. Traveling solo to another country and working in a new situation follows naturally on the heels of the guided group semester. We arrange for our participants to be met at the airport by the program sponsor, who then gives the intern an orientation to their work and living situation.

Past internship placements have included: work in schools and orphanages in India, Central America, South America, Africa, Europe and the U.S, art study in Mexico, work with wildlife in Greece, Central America, South America or Africa, the study of kung fu in China, language study anywhere in the world, environmental work in Central and South America, work with street children in Guatemala, outdoor education in New Zealand, organic gardening in Patagonia, and much, much more. Once the Solo Internship is completed, LATITUDES participants can do one additional internship placement of any length during the year following the completion of the internship.

COURSEWORK

Everything that is studied and learned is directly relevant to the program activities. Daily writing and reading are an integral part of the curriculum.

Semester Courses:

LOGISTICS

APPLICATION & ADMISSIONS

Interested applicants must send fully completed application and must have a telephone interview with a Carpe Diem staff member. Once an application is received, we contact the applicant to arrange the interview. There is no application deadline – we accept people until the program is full – then create a waiting list.

Upon acceptance into the program, participants receive a detailed trip preparation packet. This packet, together with a regularly-updated semester web page, covers program details, transportation, gear & equipment, health & immunization info, communication during the program, climate & living conditions, college credit and financial aid, detailed trip itinerary with contact info, required documents & paperwork, financial details & tuition agreement. Once accepted, participants must choose between the group programs in Central America, South America, India, East Africa, Australia/New Zealand/Fiji, or Southeast Asia.

Semester Group Size: 6 – 12 participants per group. Two leaders per group.

REQUIREMENTS

Minimum age is 17 by the start of program. No age maximum. Participants must be able to attend the full program. Anyone in good physical condition should be able to do the program successfully.

Health, Safety and Communication

The safety and well-being of our students is our first priority. Carpe Diem has safely sent over 1000 students all over the world during the past decade. The current world situation raises questions for our students, their families and friends, and it is very important that you feel confident and secure as you embark on a program involving international study and travel. We constantly monitor the world situation through the U.S. State Department, and through a network of individual and organizational contacts in 33 countries that function as our eyes and ears on the ground. We design and modify our group semesters to avoid hot spots, health risks & political trouble, and the spring internships are arranged with safety as a primary consideration.

Our group leaders are experienced both as travelers and leaders, and each group of students travels with two leaders to insure that any individual emergencies can be given the attention needed for resolution. During the solo internship period each student stays in regular contact with Carpe Diem program staff, and relates primarily to an in-country program sponsor who is directly responsive to their needs.

LATITUDES starts with a 3-day retreat in the U.S. before any travel commences. Once in–country, we continue with another three days of orientation that has the meaning of immediacy given where the students are - allowing us to give a comprehensive orientation, get a good sense of each of the participants, and lay down a foundation for healthy group dynamics. Throughout our travels, participants have ready access to medical attention, potable water, clear information about health risks, and an in-country orientation about each new place we visit. The program is designed to move from more structure to less over the course of the year – allowing each participant to become a seasoned traveler before striking off individually during the internship phase.

COST:

The cost for LATITUDES is $17,900 and includes the following:

The cost of the program does NOT include:

Each student’s family signs a payment agreement that spaces payments out over the first four months of the program.