Gap Year Semester in Latin America with Thinking Beyond Borders

TBB was the coolest experience of my life. It was so much fun and my group, including my program leaders, became a second family to me. Still TBB is definitely not a vacation, the program is very challenging and only the right fit to people who are willing to invest a lot of learning effort. If that is the case though, you will experience much personal growth through your trip, many of your assumptions will be challenged and you will come out of the experience very inspired and motivated.

In general I felt that I have learnt a lot from TBB even though there were ups and downs throughout the course of the program. Yes, people got caught drinking alcohol and yes people were caught doing marijuana which led to their expulsion, but overall I think for those of us that remained we were all honest and truthful and just plain love one another.

I guess I will start with Ecuador and how I felt in Ecuador. I felt the time in San Jose de minas was really good and allowed us to understand the local Ecuadorian culture, but I did not really like Mindo all that much because there were so many insects and so many little things that really irritated me. I also felt like the San Jose de Minas was a good place to begin our journey, and thinking back on San Jose de Minas now seems like it was a long time ago and even though I was not implicated in the drinking events at Pataqui, I think that it was just important to acknowledge the wrongdoings that we had on the trip. I really enjoyed our time in Ecuador because I felt we really connected with our host families and being able to understand that really was a highlight for me.

I also really enjoyed going up Macchu Picchu, even though the hike was really tough at times and having to bear the cold in the tent, I felt like it was so rewarding once we arrived at Macchu Picchu or like the township of Aguas Caliente was really nice.

I also really enjoyed Cochabamba and all the Cochabambinos that we met . I really enjoyed everything in Cochabamba probably because it was a modern city I guess maybe because I really enjoy being in a city. I felt like the Mizque trip could have been shortened to just like a couple of days not going for the whole week, and also the Jardin Botanico Daniella didn't really give us something really solid to work on for the entire week really and we were just mostly shovelling dirt and stuff like this which was really meaningless. I mean yes we want to help but we want to feel like things we are doing are important and meaningful. Thats the way I feel.

The South America Gap Semester with Thinking Beyond Borders was the best time of my life. For those who do not know what it is, it is an educational gap year program that involves traveling to four countries: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the US. In Ecuador, the focus of the program is Education. I worked with the rest of my group in a school in San José de Minas, Ecuador, teaching the children English. We stayed with host families in San José de Minas and the people there are genuinely some of the nicest people I have ever met. I improved my Spanish massively and had some fantastic times with my host family and the group. After, Ecuador, you go to Peru to hike Machu Picchu. We did the Salkantay Trek which was fantastic. It is truly incredible seeing Machu Picchu. Surreal. After Peru, you go to Bolivia. We stayed in Cochabamba, Bolivia with host families and during our weeks there we worked on three different projects. My favourite project was one focused on permaculture. Cochabamba is awesome. It is a proper city, so there are plenty of things to do. I went to the gym regularly and went out to eat often. It's great in Bolivia because everything is super cheap. Towards the end of Bolivia, we travelled to Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats were the most beautiful natural phenomenon I have ever seen. Being with some great people and watching the sun set on the Salar was an experience I will never forget. Finally, after Bolivia, we went to Washington DC to speak to several organizations such as the World Bank, the Peace Corps and NRDC about how they see development and what they do to tackle some of the issues we saw during our trip. The program is just fantastic and the people that sign up for this sort of stuff are super interesting. You make great friends, learn a lot about yourself and the world and have great fun while doing it. Do not think twice about signing up. It is legit.

My daughter just returned from the south America semester and I was impressed at how the program was handled and what the participates accomplished. I am so glad my daughter had this opportunity. Everyone she met has helped her grow in so many ways. I know she plans to keep in touch with members of TBB and hopes to do more with them. We were able to maintain some contact as well as read a blog she established. The program really expands a student's outlook of the world.

I chose Thinking Beyond Borders because I wanted to be challenged in a new way intellectually, physically and emotionally. All of these aspects were met and I had an amazing time. I was challenged to think about development and global issues in new ways and was pushed beyond my comfort zone in many circumstances. TBB offered amazing support from the program leaders and from our on site resources. Although at times I felt that our projects were not giving to the community as much as I hoped, I gained a lot from all of my experiences. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone searching to learn about development and the global world and about yourself.

I just came back and miss it already. I learned so much about development, made great friends in and out of our group, and reexamined myself in the process. The great thing about this program is that it isn't a gap year semester where go to South America and pretend to "save the world." TBB acknowledged that we would gain more than we gave and really looked at volunteering through a critical lens. I would not have gained the same knowledge if I had just gone to a school to teach English. We all asked ourselves why they needed to learn English in the first place. It was also just so fun! My host families were amazing and everyone should do the program!

At first, the main reason for me going on the program was to fill my free time for the Fall. My impression was that I would be part of a group of students that would just travel around, live with families and be involved in weekly seminars discussing readings and local issues. The program was far more than that. I came out of it with a greater understanding of what it means to be an agent of change and how much more incentive I have to pursue my goals for college. I've never been able to say that I 100% fully appreciate every experience I went through, every person I met, and all of my volunteer work that made an impact. I'm walking away from this program with much greater knowledge on what goes on outside of my world. Thinking Beyond Borders is a very special program that opened up my eyes to reality and the developing world.

Putting our barely 18 year old daughter on a plane to South America, knowing we'd not see her for 13 weeks and knowing she was going to encounter some very challenging situations, was nerve-wracking. Yet TBB exceeded expectations, providing her with a transformative educational experience. No college course could compare. The program is experiential learning at its best. The home-stays were safe and supportive; the service projects were compelling; the seminars were challenging; the program director and leaders were always communicative. Our child has grown immeasurably. We will always be grateful to TBB, and look forward to having our younger children share in the TBB experience when they are ready to graduate from high school.