Written by India & Nepal Overseas Educators, Tara and AnandGreetings earthlings! Here we are in rainy Portland, just returned from a rambunctious scavenger hunt.
Some things that Tara learned about Anand: He’s very playful and masterful in chess and pickleball ♟️ 🟡
He hails from Pune, India 🇮🇳
He has a deep understanding of leadership and developing a curriculum around it 🌟 Things Anand learned about Tara: Tara would… Read More
Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Andy & Jubitza👋 Hola! Andy and Jubitza here, writing to you from Portland, Oregon. We’ve been in training for the last couple of days, with a few more to go before setting off on this awesome adventure ahead of us. Here’s a quick rundown of who we are and what excites us about the next three months: Andy is from Wyoming and recently… Read More
Written by RJ Lichten – 2024 Carpe Vitam Community Award: Education, Spring 2023 South Pacific Alum Finding your path is much more than following what you love; it is about aligning your passions with actions that make a difference. Once you find your passion, any action can have a significant impact. These small actions could be anything from volunteering your time to an organization you truly care about, to something… Read More
Written by Macey Tayler, 2023-24 Latitudes Student When I committed to going to a quaint little town, on the northern coast of Peru, I had no idea what to expect. Google Maps showed me pictures that could only be described as extraterrestrial; but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lobitos, Peru was where I needed to spend my individual placement with Carpe Diem. Now, eight weeks into… Read More
Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Malcolm and Jasmin It’s hard to believe our ten weeks together in Central America have come to an end. How is it that we won’t all be sharing a meal later today or waking up groggy-eyed tomorrow before another adventure? We formed such close bonds and integrated into each other’s lives throughout our wonderful semester together, filled with exploration, new challenges, and lots of… Read More
Written by Asa Poole, 2023-24 Latitudes StudentSettling into Jungle Life When I first stepped off the bus I was greeted by a friendly old man named Donnie. I loaded my bags into the back of his truck and jumped in. He started driving down a beautiful path through the jungle lined with giant ferns, and coconut trees. After a few amazing minutes we arrived at my new home, an… Read More
Written by Central America Student, Danny Evans We arrived in Drake Bay for the last week of the trip! Here we explored the biodiversity of the Pacific Ocean as through the week we completed our Padi Open Water Dive Scuba certification🤿. We were also fortunate to visit Corcovado National Reserve seeing many different animals native to Costa Rica. We saw different types of monkeys, a sloth, an anteater, a boa,… Read More
Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Educators, Ariana and Megan Ciao for Now!
It’s hard to believe, but the Terra group is on their last night in Athens! Did we really just do all that we did? Whatever motivated each student to step on that plane on March 5th and fly to a foreign country with complete strangers, we applaud them! It takes courage to do what others aren’t doing-… Read More
Written by Central America Student, Cleo MillerNew Adventures in Mastatal Landed in Costa Rica! This week we traveled to a small and remote, but extremely beautiful, town called Mastatal in biodiverse Costa Rica! We stayed with Javier and his family in Villas Mastatal, and remained unplugged for the week, which was amazing to connect more with nature and I also finished a great book. Throughout the week we worked… Read More
Written by India & Nepal Overseas Educator, Soumya Namaste! It’s your favorite Sagittarius OE, Soumya. This morning, I said goodbye to the Qaasid cohort and our own British prince, Andrew. As I zoomed away from the airport feeling the smoggy Kathmandu air on my face, I could not believe the moment had arrived. This week closed out a brief and beautiful rollercoaster of a semester with eight unique, special souls… Read More
Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Students, Ben Torregiani & Stavroula Skandalakis This week the Terra 2024 group went to Matera, a town carved out of stone. We started the week by visiting a school where we would be teaching kindergarten students English. In the afternoon, we made pasta in a house carved into the mountain and ate it with a view of the Sassi di Matera. The next day,… Read More
Written by Central America Students, Jess Solit and Danny Evans This week was student-directed travel (SDT)! Our group embarked on the intimidating yet exciting task of planning and budgeting all of our housing, activities, transportation, and food for the week, while also leading our expeditions. We started our week on the west coast of Guatemala in El Paredon, splashed around in the ocean, played some frisbee, surfed some waves, and… Read More
Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Students, Eden Tropepe and Kian Murray This past week the Carpe Diem Terra group went to Rome and experienced the ancient wonders of Italy. We started our time off visiting the Vatican and seeing the Pope’s inspirational message to 1.4 billion Catholics for Easter. We then had some time to explore the city with a walking tour through the historic area. On our last… Read More
Written by Central America Student, Arianna Cochrane What’s new?
We were in San Juan staying in homestays for our second and final week! Which also means our final week of Spanish school! We are all glad we got to improve our Spanish so much, but definitely happy we made it through it all. Our group also had painting classes and weaving classes, and we got to learn the history behind… Read More
Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Students, Sydney and Logan A few weeks back, we did part of the Via Francigena! We walked for 4 days and had great weather throughout! Lauren was our guide through it all, she was amazing! We met a nice gentleman on the first day who stopped us and talked about how he hosted hikers doing the trek! We stopped at various small towns along… Read More
Written by Central America Student, Henry Probolus What’s new?
We arrived in San Juan and started our week of Spanish classes. We started on cultural art projects like painting and weaving. We enjoyed the cultural events of Semana Santa like the procession and creating alfombras out of flowers and colored sawdust. We visited nearby towns like San Pedro and went to Panajachel to see butterflies and other animals at the… Read More
Written by Central America Students, Jess Solit and Cleo Miller What’s new?
⦿ Our group headed over to Tzununa to learn about permaculture from Neil and Jeremy at the Granja Tz’ikin – The Farm.
⦿ Swam and walked around San Marcos, learned about the 12 values of permaculture, harvested veggies, and turned over garden beds.
⦿ We also met some incredible people like Ava and the families at Quixaya to… Read More
Written by William McCall Symms, 2023-24 Latitudes Student This semester has been an immensely enriching learning experience for me. Following a consistent schedule has been both demanding and enjoyable. Every day involves going out to collect data and conduct field research, not only on elephants but also on other species negatively impacted by humans, with the main focus being to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.
A great part of this experience… Read More
Written by Andres Huenneke, 2023-24 Latitudes Student Over this semester I have been in Namibia in Southern Africa working with animal conservation for an organization called Naankuse. I have transitioned between some different projects around the country. Every project deals with a different aspect of animal conservation and rehabilitation. I have been to four different projects so far and next week I will go to my fifth. Some projects are… Read More
Written by Anantya Mazi, 2023-24 Latitudes StudentSettling In and Finding Community La Hesperia is a forest reserve that rests above the small rural town of La Esperie. At the reserve, I was able to settle in quickly, especially with the help of the other volunteers working here, whom I now consider dear friends. On weekdays, Monday to Friday, we begin our days with breakfast at 7:30 am. Depending on… Read More
