Location
  • India
Length
4 - 26 weeks
Need-based funding, General grants/scholarships, 529 Plan eligibility, BIPOC funding
Health & Safety

Program Details

Activities
Hiking Remote Exploring Trekking
Timeframe
Fall Spring
Housing
Guesthouse Host Family
Primary Language
Bengali
Age Min.
17
Age Max
22

Pricing

Starting Price
16550
Price Details
The India Gap Semester's land cost is $16,550 for three months. Need-based scholarships are available.
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Meals Transportation
What's Not Included
Airfare
Nov 27, 2023
Apr 19, 2019
5 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Investigate the impact of climate change at the source, traveling from Himalayan glaciers to the Indian plains, examining environmental activism across cultures and landscapes.

From the Bay of Bengal to the highest Himalayan peaks, water dictates the lives and livelihoods of millions. As the Earth’s climate changes, warming temperatures at altitude result in higher glacial melt in the Himalayas, while more unpredictable weather patterns leave millions vulnerable to drought and cyclones or other tropical storms born out of the Bay of Bengal. Dragons India semester offers students the opportunity to go beyond India’s trodden traveler trails to live and learn alongside communities on the front lines of this era’s climate crisis.

College Credit is optional for an additional fee.

Video and Photos

Diversity & Inclusion

BIPOC Support

Unfortunately, discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, and skin tone exists in different forms all over the world. In some destinations, especially rural or ethnically homogenous areas, people may not have had much exposure to racial diversity. As such, people with certain physical characteristics may experience unwanted attention. Most commonly, this might include staring, insensitive comments, people taking your photo (with or without asking), or attempts to touch your skin or hair. Black students traveling in parts of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa have often reported higher levels of unwanted attention than their peers. White students traveling in parts of Asia and Africa have also reported receiving unwanted attention. Students are encouraged to communicate with staff if they feel their personal boundaries are being violated or if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable in any situation. We encourage you to believe your peers if/when they share experiences like this with you.

LGBTQIA+ Support

Social, cultural, religious, political, and legal attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community vary around the world. According to the Global Acceptance Index, average levels of acceptance for LGBTQ+ people around the world have been increasing since 1981. However, many countries where Dragons operates programs may have social discrimination or even laws against being LGBTQ+. We have safely supported LGBTQ+ students in all of our program areas, and provide specific cultural and geographic advice to help students stay safe on course.

In some cases, students may be advised not to speak about their sexual orientations and/or gender identities with local contacts (such as homestay families, ISP mentors, language teachers, and guest speakers) due to safety concerns. Likewise, transgender and non-binary students may have to choose to present outwardly as male or female in certain contexts during the program. In other cases, “coming out” to some or all host community members may be a safe choice.

Neurodivergent Support

For students with neuro-differences (such as dyslexia, ADHD, ASD, TS, and dyspraxia), it is important to be aware that neurodiversity is likely viewed differently abroad than at home. People might not be familiar with labels or terms that are very common where you come from. If you struggle with lots of external stimuli, you should be prepared that you will be in some environments that are louder and busier than what you are used to.

Accessibility Support

If you are a student with a physical disability, you might encounter challenges around accessibility than you have at home. Many of the places we travel at Dragons don’t have building codes or other regulations in place to support people with visual, hearing, or mobility impairments. You may need accommodations or support that you don’t usually require in your life at home.

Impact

Sustainability

Dragons defines responsible travel as travel that is culturally conscious, environmentally responsible, and focused on developing meaningful connections and mutual respect in the communities to which we travel. Over the course of Dragons 25+ year history, we have cultivated long-standing relationships with respected community leaders, academics, social entrepreneurs and professionals involved in environmental and cultural preservation. In the more than 20 countries in which Dragons has operated, we have steadfastly adhered to minimum impact travel, an accurate and informed understanding of place, and the realization of maximum benefit for the communities we visit.

Ethical Impact

Dragons believes that we need to shift the way we think of volunteer travel. Instead of focusing on “service work”—on the idea that short-term volunteers can contribute to communities abroad—we advocate a paradigm shift: we choose, instead, to focus on “learning service.”

Learning Service is a holistic experience that combines an intimate and authentic engagement with the local community, the study of effective development, and the contribution to an established community-driven project. It is the process of living, working alongside, and humbly absorbing the culture of those being served while coordinating closely with project managers to understand the trajectory of the project, from inception to completion and beyond. It is an acknowledgment that often it is the volunteer who stands to gain as much or more from the work. And it is a commitment to making contributions that create positive impacts in the communities coupled with the humility to always listen and learn first.

Program Highlights

  • Deep focus on the practical impacts of climate change and water issues in varied ecosystems from the mountains to the plains
  • Spend time in communities that are off the beaten path, learning alongside India’s vast diversity of people, cultures, and landscapes
  • Pick an area of interest and dive in with a local mentor! Sitar, tabla, Indian cooking, Kathak dance, Hindi or Urdu language, vocals, women’s issues, comparative religion, stone carving, woodworking, and jewelry making are some popular options.
  • Investigate issues of health, education, urban migration, the caste system, human rights, gender, social inequality, poverty, climate change and more.
  • Delve into local rhythms on a high altitude trek and at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery retreat.

Popular Programs

Photo by Jack Greene.

Explore a Himalayan kingdom during this 10-day semester extension program. Travel to vast and ancient landscapes, examine Buddhism and sustainability with monks and environmentalists, and hike to sacred cliffside monasteries.

Scholarships

Where There Be Dragons Financial Aid & 529 Funds

Where There Be Dragons offers need-based financial aid to students that demonstrate reasonable financial need and are excited to engage with communities around the world.

Program Dates

Application Deadline
Program Dates
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Program Reviews

4.50 Rating
based on 2 reviews
  • 5 rating 50%
  • 4 rating 50%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Housing 5
  • Support 5
  • Fun 4.5
  • Value 5
  • Safety 4.5
Showing 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Default avatar
Ellen
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A Self-affirming experience

I decided to spend a semester of my gap year with Dragons because I wanted to challenge myself. It certainly was a challenge, but it was so worth it.
Varanasi is a beautiful, colorful city, unlike any place I had ever seen before. There is so much to explore. I loved sharing meals with my homestay family.
After a fast-paced six weeks in bustling Varanasi, Ladakh offered me much-needed peace and space to reflect. I hope to one day return to the Himalayas.
In India, I encountered for the first time various physical and mental limitations, and worked through the difficult process of figuring out which of those limitations I need to accept and which ones need to be challenged. I made incredible bonds with people I never would have met otherwise. I learned that I am capable of so much more than I thought possible.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
Do as much as you can. Go out of your comfort zone and take advantage of every opportunity that interests you. Talk to locals - and listen - and form relationships with them. I spent a large portion of my program being really afraid, but I got home and regretted not pushing myself to do more. Be safe, of course, and take care of your physical and emotional health, but pursue the things that excite you. You can rest when you get home.
32 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Lily
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A Great Experience

I did this Dragon's course in India for the second semester of my gap year and absolutely loved it. The course is rather structured and you are in a big group for a lot of the time, but there is also a lot of free time that they leave for you to utilize on your own. Through this structure, we all soon realized that it is really up to us to have the experience we want. Yes, the program has a strong structure and set of rules, but pretty much everything else is left up to you. If you don’t ask any questions yourself, you won't find any answers.
I took an academic course, Regional Seminar, for credit alongside the mandatory classes that are part of the regular course (i.e. Hindi, ISP). Classes for credit seemed to be more of a new, experimental part of the course and because there were only a few students taking courses them out of the group of 12, there was not a lot of opportunities to hold discussions or write papers, or really have class at all. I am glad I did it though, because taking an academic course like Regional Seminar and being able to put the readings in context really allowed me to dive deeper into my experience and connect more with what I was seeing around me.
Dragons instructors are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They are there to facilitate your experience and help with any problems you might have. At the same time, they emphasize that they are not there to hold your hand during your travels. The course aims to teach it’s students to travel mindfully and view the world as a global citizen, and it did just that for me. Thank you, Dragons!

What would you improve about this program?
The course also relies heavily on group dynamic, and that dynamic being very good and strong. I think it is great that they put so much thought into these dynamics and their rules against excluding people, but if there is a problem in the group (or some kind of beef) it is very hard to deal with
26 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers