Why choose Carpe Diem?

Our Mission, Vision, & Values

Our Mission: 

Inspiring emerging leaders to hope, grow, and connect to solutions for our planet and its residents through experiential education, and sincere engagement with local communities and their projects.

Our Vision:

We envision a society in which citizens are alive to their experiences, aware of the contributions they can bring to the world and empowered to make a sustainable change towards environmental and social justice. We value people and planet and push the leading edge on citizenship, education and work through transformative growth experiences.

Carpe Diem Education contributes to a more inclusive and vibrant society by equipping the next generation of global leaders through cultivating compassion, deeper awareness (self, others, planet), and cross-cultural understanding. We believe that these are among many of the core attributes future leaders will need in order for humanity to emerge into a greater level of conscious and directed action.

Our Values:

  1. Meet People Where They Are - Growth happens best when individuals are seen and their skills and challenges are acknowledged with love. 
  2. Cultivate Faith in Humanity - Collaboration is essential for progress. Invest in humanity’s future through meaningful connections that show real pathways toward progress.
  3. Embrace Growth & Transformation - Everything changes.  Each day affords the opportunity to inspire ourselves and others with our approach to change. 
  4. Enrich Education Through Accessible Experiences - Strive for experiences that cultivate empathy, understanding, and place-building. 
  5. Connect Authentically - SHOW UP with integrity and include everyone who genuinely wants to share most of our vision. 
  6. Play Wherever Possible - Embrace the absurdity and humor of life, creating new possibilities and encouraging positive impact. 
  7. Start From The Center - Prioritize personal growth to better serve others. We avoid undermining good intentions by poor planning and unspoken issues.
  8. Combat Climate Change - Promote good acts, amplify their impact, and push for broader systems change on both planetary and societal levels.

We offer expertly designed programs.

Extending to 5 continents and 19 countries, Carpe Diem Education provides semester and year-long programs for students ages 17-22. Our gap year programs challenge perspectives, embolden critical thinking, and inspire a greater sense of self through enhanced global perspectives. Balancing hard work with fun-filled adventure; finding laughter in the midst of serious inquiry; we discover the depths of our humanity together.

We meet each student where they're at and engage them.

We believe that students learn best when fully immersed and engaged in local communities, languages, and cultures. Our small student groups travel off the beaten path to provide authentic cultural exchange, meaningful challenge, and transformative experiences. Read more about our approach to gap year education here.  

We are an inspired team of educators and leaders.

We believe in the power of international education, learning through service, and community engagement. Our Overseas Educators are certified in Wilderness First Aid, dedicated experiential educators, and experienced world travelers. Our Headquarter staff will help you every step of the way. Our Founders are experts in adolescent development and ADHD, and have earned the Lifetime Achievement Award for Gap Year Education as the founder of the Gap Year Association and has been heavily featured on NPR and other major news outlets.

We value diversity and inclusion.

We provide substantial support to our non-profit partner, Carpe Mundi, as a means to make the gap year experience more accessible to a diverse audience. Learn more about our diversity and inclusion plan.  Through our other organization, Global Routes, we give the majority of our scholarship support to Summer Search and Son of a Saint, and build custom programs for educational partners like the Harlem Educational Activities Fund.

We value education and accessibility.

We're not only able to offer college credit and the ability to use 529 funds, we also offer various scholarships in our continued efforts to make the gap year experience accessible to a wider, more diverse population.  We are the primary partner of our sister nonprofit, Carpe Mundi.

We believe that climate change is real.

We hear each semester how impacted our local contacts are by climate change, whether each circumstance can be scientifically connected to "Climate Change" or not, the lived impacts are noted by our contacts.  We do our best to show students real opportunities through volunteer projects, that educate about adaptive solutions to real problems on their travels.  However, as an organization we recognize that we have a massive carbon footprint if by air travel alone, and our single greatest net-positive influence is the education we facilitate for each of our students; and each person in our community. As an organization, we work to minimize the carbon footprint on each program; live by policies that incentivize green choices; add core climate change curricula into each program; invest in volunteer projects that are effective in real climate change impacts; inspire real conversations; and ultimately work to drive political change so great ideas matter at the scale required.  See our Sustainability page here.

We maintain the highest standards in the gap year industry.

Carpe Diem is accredited by the Gap Year Association (GYA), a nonprofit organization that is recognized as setting the standard for the gap year industry for risk management, responsible community engagement, and educational value. Since becoming one of the first organizations to pass the GYA’s rigorous set of 125 standards in 2014, Carpe Diem Education has continued to be a leader in gap year program safety, quality, and integrity.

We are committed to being the "right fit" for our students, and we are transparent in disclosing any commissions paid for any relevant referrals so students have the right to weigh their own sources.

We are in the top 5% of B Corp Certified organizations globally for our size.

Testimonials

“[Our daughter] regards Carpe Diem as the ‘best decision I've ever made in my whole life.’  We feel exactly the same about it! If we had other children we would send them ALL to Carpe Diem!”

- Sharon,
CDE Parent

“I can't thank Carpe Diem enough for the time and effort the put into making this year the best I have had.”

- Jack,
CDE Student

“Through Carpe Diem I was given the space to grow, learn, and feel every experience to the fullest extent without judgment. If I could go back and do it again, I would not change a single thing about my experience.”

- Desiree, 
CDE Student