Training is a wrap! Safe travels to all the Latitudes Year students as they head off to volunteer with organizations working in wildlife & marine conservation, environmental justice, community development, human rights protection, sustainable tourism and many more.
The group of 28 students will be spread across placements in Thailand (3), Indonesia (2), Sri Lanka (1), Cambodia (1), New Zealand (2), South Africa (5), Namibia (1), Kenya (1), Argentina (2),… Read More
Greetings Latitudes families and friends!
We wanted to report that our cohort of 27 Latitudes students have arrived to Portland safely and have made their way to Camp Angelos. We have spent our first evening getting to know one another, looking back at everyone’s group semester, as well as beginning to look ahead and set goals for the upcoming semester. Not to mention a delicious dinner and fire to sit… Read More
By Carpe Diem Education Alumni Breezy Zins On my first night back in America after a three-month-long journey through East Africa, I opened up my closet doors, looked at all the clothes I had – so many they all wouldn’t fit on hangers and had to be folded on shelves – and I cried.
I’d seen such incredible poverty it seemed so unfair, so confusing, to have so many… Read More
Currently, we are looking out over the Tasman Sea in Auckland, NZ, reflecting on the last 3 months. The trip has all been wrapped up, and we are here as your OE’s, your friends, and your fellow travelers. What a whirlwind of an adventure it has been. By now many of you all will have told your friends and families some of your favorite stories and memories, and we wanted… Read More
To our dear Shanti Family,
It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to each of you today. We have shared so much over these past few months and grown close, like family.
Each of you have shared your beautiful spirit with our group and with the communities we have met in India, and we will always be grateful to each of you for the originality, light, and kindness that each of you… Read More
Hello friends and families!
This is Matt and Rachael, your OEs, writing our final semester blog post from the tropical paradise of Roatan, Honduras.
What a 3 months this has been! The time flew by and sometimes crawled. It feels like we have known each other forever and also like we were meeting in LAX yesterday. It is going to be strange breaking up this little family at the airport… Read More
Wow who knew 3 months could be filled with so many memories. We will never forget all the campfire sing alongs, the rain in bark bay, or games of patterns filled with laughter. It was a beautiful ride filled with more lessons than we can count. From experiencing a remote village in Fiji, to learning how to milk a cow, and even getting certified to dive. We experienced all we… Read More
A song thaew seats twelve. Well, eight comfortably. Ten if you squeeze. But right now it seats twelve. Right now twelve sets of shoulders hold each other locked in place. Heads jostle on the bumpy road and someone compares them to bobble-head dolls. Some laugh, some grin, some act like they didn’t hear. Maybe they didn’t. The pavement is rough and the tires aren’t new. Song thaew is Thai for… Read More
Hey guys welcome back to my YouTube channel, it’s Madi here, featuring Sammi.
To start off student directed travel, we had to wake up bright and early to catch a sleeper bus to Hoi An. The bus ride took us 13 hours and we arrived at our hostel later that evening. After a group dinner Claire, Audrey, Bryley and Harrison went to the night market where they got gelato.
The… Read More
It’s been an amazing three months! It is with a heavy heart and excitement for the future that we bid farewell to our 10 terrific students, each who brought something unique and valued to our little nomadic group.
From the humid coasts of Ecuador to the high and chilly mountains of Peru, this semester was truly filled with adventure, laughs, and challenges for all of us. Talking about permaculture, practicing… Read More
It’s hard to believe it’s over.
Our final week in Morocco was spent on an adventure from the trails of the High Atlas, along the Route of 1,000 Kasbahs, to the dunes of Erg Chebbi, through gorgeous Todra Gorge, over the Moroccan Alps at Ifrane, into the ancient medina of Fez and eventually to bustling Casablanca.
This week of Student Directed Travel encapsulated much of the semester. We made new… Read More
As our groups return this week, we know families are excited to welcome students home and proud of all of their hard work over the past months. Taking a gap year is a transformative journey and you may think the experience is over: the truth is, some of the hardest work has just begun.
As students grapple with reverse culture shock, it is important that they feel supported so… Read More
Written By Kai 11/19
On Tuesday we left the Buddhist retreat and and took the train back the Brisbane. The night before we discussed options for activities for our two days in the city before heading to the wallaby reserve so Natalie, Lillie, Jay, Caleb and Maddy decided to visit the Steve Irwin Zoo. So when we left the buddhist retreat, one group enjoyed the best zoo in Australia and… Read More
We made it! It was an epic hike, over the Salkantay pass at 15,000 ft, camping below massive mountain peaks, and pushing our bodies to complete 4 days of hiking.
Our troop of 10 (plus a guide, cooks, mules and mule drivers) had a great experience. From high mountain peaks to the jungle, we traversed through an amazing array of ecosystems. It was an unforgettable experience! We met the final… Read More
Written By Rosalie As I’m writing this, we are heading into our final week together as a group after nearly three months of travel. Tomorrow, we leave Costa Rica, and I have to say that our last week here has been one of the most impactful, at least for me. Despite the many giant spiders I encountered and then willfully tried and failed to ignore (they remain seared into the… Read More
Photos and article by Carpe Diem Alumni Evangeline Scazzero If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve already been poisoned.
Poisoned by what your parents call “the travel bug,” what your friends call “you’re so lucky,” and what your college advisor will eventually call, “put down the study abroad pamphlets.”
Full disclosure, I have also been poisoned.
Yet here I am, still alive and well. I’ve survived it all.… Read More
We’re almost to the end!
While we were in Marrakesh for a second time, some of us went back to the nice restaurant on the edge of the medina. Happy birthday to Tess, who turned 19 on the 22nd. Most unfortunately, a convenience store was discovered right by our hotel, so we had no choice but to get lots and lots of junk food. Omid went home a bit early,… Read More
Hello everyone. Since we talked last, we’ve been working hard on student presentations, catching up on sleep, and learning how to SCUBA dive in the beautiful waters of Nha Trang. On November 19th we spent our last day in Ho Chi Minh City where we went to the Vietnam War museum and learned about how the war affected not only the Vietnamese, but also many US soldiers and their families… Read More
Written By Sierra & Hunter This is Hunter and Sierra giving you all an update on our most recent journey Down Under. On Nov. 10th, we arrived at our first destination in Australia: Sheoak Ridge. The people at Sheoak—Claire and Marcus—strive to protect native eco-systems in far North Queensland on their 165-acre property. They conduct research, work on rehabilitating wallabies, practice mindful land management, and provide unique opportunities for students… Read More
Hiya everyone!! Its Sydney Lou Who here, writing with the unsolicited help of Rachael and Hayden. Last week we spent 5 days working at the turtle project in the Nicoya Peninsula with Eduardo and Mancho and a host of others that included a group of German volunteers and Brazilian volunteers, so we took the opportunity to make lots of friends and annoy more people than just Matt and Rachael. We… Read More
