Incredible Opportunity Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

On-site administration of your program

Almost all the country directors were really fun, interactive, and educational. I really liked Boon in Cambodia and Yao in Ghana

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

We were living with host families, and so the living arrangements were meant to be a bit lacking in terms of conditions. However, I loved my host families, especially when we spoke the same language!

I liked all the food, except for in Ghana. Again, you are just getting what the host family serves you, and so it's about as authentic as it gets, and sometimes, it kind of sucks! That's part of the adventure.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

We were living in host families and volunteering in farming fields, schools, and medical clinics. We learned the native language as best as one could hope in 45 days, and, especially in Thailand and Guatemala, had to use it if we wanted to interact with the locals. It would have been really easy to not put in the effort though, in which case the rating would drop accordingly, and a lot of other students didn't want to put in the effort, but I promise you, what you put in, you get out, especially when it comes to this category.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I needed to go to the hospital during my stay, and so we went to the local clinic. Everything was paid for, but the care I received was no better than the care any of the locals would have, and so my issue was taken care of, but it wasn't the standard of care you would receive in the US or Europe.

There is a risk management director who pays attention to what we did and how safe everything was. That being said, living in Guatemala or Ghana as a white person draws some unwanted attention, and the women on the trip with us didn't always feel safe; that's just part of the adventure. I would like to point out one example though. In our last month of the gap year, COVID-19 broke out. We flew home from Morocco the day after the first case occurred there, and we ended up leaving DC early because the CDC said any group of 10 or more is considered high risk. We had 11 people. We managed to get all 11 home within 2 days of CDC announcing this, and one of the students from Belgium flew home 2 days before the last possible flight. This was all the doing of risk management; he made sure everyone would get home safely without damaging our program experience to much. In total, we did lose 1 week of program time, but I would say that it was well worth it, if it means none of us caught the virus.

I experienced so much growth on the program, and learned so much about the world and different cultures. It was truly life changing.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

There was an upfront cost to the program, so most of the time everything was paid for, but some weeks we had to pay for everything, from housing to food to cultural experiences, in which case we usually spent about $150/week.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

In Guatemala, everyone around us spoke Spanish, including our host families. In Thailand, only the English teachers at schools spoke English, so we spoke a lot of Thai. In Ghana, we still learned Twi, but most people spoke English, so it wasn't as big of a deal.

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• Host Family

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• Host Family

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• International Students

• Living with host families
• Having the same 10 people around for 6 months.
• Visiting Central America, South East Asia, Western Africa, and Morocco

• The program leaders
• Learning topics

The Avid Adventurer