Up with People On Tour Gap Year Experience

Up with People it's a program were you are always learning. To practically live with 100 people from around 20 different countries it's a one life time experience, always having fun, learning from each other and breaking the walls between countries, building bridges and really becoming a global citizen. Traveling 6 months or a year, volunteering, living with host families, performing a show, getting to know friends from all around the world, everything it's an incredible experience that taught me so much.

I would have been a different person if I wouldn't have decided to travel with Up wit People. This experience made me open my eyes in every perspective. I am international, I know what is happening around the wold and why. I know how it feels. This because of the places I traveled to, but more important; the people I met and who I traveled with.

This is a crazy world, go out there. Get out of your comfort zone, and see how your full potential will surprise you.

After graduating college in 2010 I was looking for the next thing in life when the chance to UWP came along. To be honest I was reluctant at first, the program had so many components. I wasn't great at singing, dancing etc but I found out that was one of the smallest parts of the program.
What I really loved about UWP was the sense of empowerment I gained from it. After being selected as an Advance Team intern (they go ahead of the cast to help find food, beds, sponsors, etc) I looked at this challenge and said "how can this be done?" But piece by piece it all came together. I remember thinking at the end of it..."holy crap I can't believe I did all that!" That sense of accomplishment and empowerment has helped me out in my professional career so much.
Another skill I gained from UWP was the ability to be flexible and make the best of out of not great situations. In life and work you run into roadblocks and you have to get thru them to accomplish your objective. You will be in a situation at some point on the road where you have to make a choice...either be upset or frustrated by the situation or make the best out of it. After a while you see being upset doesn't do you any good and you learn to make lemonade out of the lemons. After leaving UWP I was quickly promoted to higher positions because of the positive attitude I kept when things went wrong

After high school I had a giant travel-itch, and I needed a program to scratch it. I had applied for Up with People a few years earlier, but at that point I hadn't decided if I wanted to do it or not. I gave it some thought and decided to go for a full year. I flew over to Denver, Colorado in july of 2013, and I knew within a day that I had made the right choice. Never before had I met so many open and welcoming people in such a short time. I remember talking to a ton of new people in the first few days, and even though none of us knew each other from before, everybody was so open and ready to connect.

After an intense month of learning our show, we got on the road and our journey had begun for real. We rolled into a new city every week, where we were greeted by new host families, new amazing voluntary organizations, tons of great food and phenomenal crowds at our shows. Every city brought a different adventure, whether it was staying by yourself in a Mexican family that spoke no English while you spoke absolutely no Spanish, or having to figure out the public transportation for you and your friends in Rome.

I was lucky enough to be able to travel for two semesters, which means I got to experience new and incredible things every single week for a full year. I stayed with over 40 different families, went to about 8 different countries on three continents, tasted food I'd never even heard of (I could go on for days about Mexico's spicy candy) and met so many absolutely beautiful human beings.

When I got back home people would ask me what my favorite place was, or if it had been fun playing shows in foreign countries. I could give them answers to those questions, but at the end of the day it was the people that made the experience so unique. That's also why all the people who have travelled with Up with People have had such different experiences. The people change, but the framework remains the same. I got closer with people that I traveled with for 6 months than I ever got with friends back home that I had gone to school with for 3-7 years. Being on the road, and out of your comfort zone brings you closer to the people you're with, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

The way my life unfolded from the moment I decided to fill the application could not have been predicted. I had been on a plane 6 times in 20 years. Since Up with People, I have flown 27 times in 2 years.
The people and connections I made as a student define where I am today. This bond with cast mates, staff, and host families is so strong because it is sincere, the only reason behind it is true passion. UWP gave me the confidence to be who I belive I truly am, a "self" that did not fully come out in conventional settings such as school. It also made me realize that nationality is a starting point, but never the end, our country of origin is where we start our journey but we choose where it goes. The magic is, in UWP your cast mates also go through this and discover this with you, so you'll find the most like-minded people you'll ever meet.

I participated in the Up with People program when I was 19. I grew up in a small town that did not have much diversity, and it was incredible to find myself part of a group that represented 20 different countries! We got to travel to three distinctive cultures- across the USA, Mexico, and Japan, and stay with host families to really explore and gain an understanding for the communities we were in. We got to do community service and have educational workshops that have helped me throughout the rest of my education and my professional life as well. The show was also an amazing opportunity to grow and master skills like public speaking and confidence. The people I met during my Up with People experience are still my friends, even all these years later. This program is truly the experience of a lifetime!!!

if you like traveling, volonteering, performing a profesional show, meet so many wounderful people, getting to know different culture and religions from yours this is your best shot!!
Up wth People changed and is still changing my life. it is more then traveling because when you end your experience you have families and friends all around the world!
meanwhile you are traveling, being hosted for the local families, volonteering and performing a show, with Up with People, you have also the chance to apply for internships, so this program offers you a personal and a professional growing meanwhile you are traveling!
this program is unique and it does not stop after the semester abroad, all your friends will be always be there and you will have a home in so many different places all around the world!!

Up with People has 20,000 alumni who would in an instant tell you that they would instantly travel again as an "Uppie" if they had the opportunity. Why, do you think, would they go back to the early mornings, late nights, long rehearsals, small meals, no freedom, lifestyle that is Up with People? Because it is so much more than that.

Up with People is so much more than the challenges that it presents to participants. Through these challenges, Up with People breaks you down, but then builds you up again. It shows you how human you are, but then shows you how invincible you can be. It shows you how much more you can do as a human and it shows you how to embrace these challenges and conquer them.

My tour was the tour of challenges and plan changing. My first show on the road was in front of 3,000 alumni in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World. Then, we had to take two days to get the entire cast to Aguascalientes. I arrived late at night to my host family, but some cast members had to stay in a hostel that had limited beds so they slept in what we call a "cuddle puddle" on the floor. That same week, our stage caught on fire and our show was delayed by almost an hour - but during that entire time, my cast was playing games behind the stage in order to get pumped up for the show in the midst of the chaos. On the way to Zacatlan, Mexico, what was supposed to only be a 14 hour bus ride turned into an 18 hour bus ride that arrived at midnight to our host families, but we all put on a smile and enjoyed their performance for us when we arrived. In Liechenstein, we found out that we were no longer going to be able to go to Brussels because of safety concerns following the Paris attacks, so we put together a video project and impacted that city right where we were. We went to Antwerp and then woke up at 2:30 in the morning to go to Rome, Italy. This week, the entire cast combated a case of lice.

When I look back on these challenges of the past six months, I think of all the amazing stories and moments that came out of them. Looking out into the audience in Orlando. Greeting the hostel group with hugs the next morning to encourage them. Doing a mini-greenroom behind a burning stage. Singing "High School Musical" on the bus to pass the time. Showing the world that "We are Human." Seeing the Colosseum for the first time. Bonding with my roommate while I checked her head for lice.

These are all moments and feelings that you get to have in Up with People. Up with People is a monster, but not in a negative way. It is a monster that shows you who you are inside. Shows you that when a challenge comes, you can overcome it. Only in Up with People can you face these challenges with 100 of your best friends. When these things happen, there is a team who is there already problem solving. Already moving forward. Acting. Doing. Inspiring.

There has not been one day in Up with People that I was not inspired by someone in my cast. Up with People tears you down, builds you up, and gives you little gifts in the forms of your cast mates and staff members. These are people who I will remember for the rest of my life as a part of my family around the world. People like my Production Manager who inspires me every day with his patience and positivity. People like my cast mate from Arizona who never fails to greet others with a smile, even when she wants to fall asleep or is aggravated.

All in all, this is a hard program, but it is worth it. It is so worth it. Up with People is a program that if you survive, you will be on cloud nine. You will learn how to embrace the difficult things and life and will be able to pull out tools to change the things you don't like about your world.

There is a quote by Maya Angelou that goes "If you don't like your world, change it. If you can't change it, change your mind." This quote embodies Up with People because Up with People gives you a world. It gives you things that you're going to want to change, and the opportunity to change them. It also gives you the opportunity to practice patience and kindness if you cannot change them. Through this, you become a better person than when you first arrived. You become stronger, more patient, more kind, more thoughtful, and more passionate. You become yourself.