Western USA GAP Semester and Summer Programs | Pacific Discovery

Name: Western USA GAP Semester and Summer Programs | Pacific Discovery
Brand: Pacific Discovery
SKU: 262287
Rating: 4 (4 reviews)

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4.00 Rating

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Location

United States of America

Length

12 - 26 weeks

Program Tags

Adventure Travel Conservation Cultural Immersion Hands-On Learning Post-High School Wilderness Yoga Retreats

Need-based funding, Merit-based funding, General grants/scholarships, Payment plans, 529 Plan eligibility, BIPOC funding

Health & Safety

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Program Details

Activities

Camping Hiking Mountain Biking

Timeframe

Fall Spring

Housing

Apartment Hotel Lodge Tent

Primary Language

English

Pricing

Starting Price

13500

What's Included

Accommodation Activities Equipment Meals Transportation Wifi

What's Not Included

Airfare Travel Insurance

Last Updated: Aug 10, 2021

Last Reviewed: Nov 28, 2020

Wish List

3 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

These Programs offers you enriching and inspiring experiences throughout the beautiful regions of the United States’ West Coast and surrounds. It combines service-learning conservation projects in diverse reserves; outdoor expeditions including backpacking, kayaking, rock climbing, yoga and white-water rafting; and educational adventure travel through the west’s stunning mountain, forest and desert environments. Discover the weaving and cooking traditions of the Native Americans, the National Parks’ efforts to mitigate deforestation and reintroduce endemic wildlife, and uncover more about your own backyard than you even knew existed.

This program is no longer offered. View more programs from Pacific Discovery.

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Diversity & Inclusion 💙

BIPOC Support

We understand that we have a long way to go in achieving the diversity we strive for among our students, staff, and partners. We are committed to fostering a more diverse and inclusive organization, and we recognize that this requires time, effort, and resources. At Pacific Discovery, we deeply value diversity, equity, and social justice, and we are dedicated to creating educational experiences that reflect and promote these values. Our program curriculum incorporates social justice education and encourages students to explore their own identities. To further support these efforts, we offer a 'Diverse Voices' Scholarship.

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LGBTQIA+ Support

All of our Pacific Discovery programs are LGBTQIA+ friendly, and our operations team have attended CIS Abroad's LGBTQ+ Allyship Training, to ensure we’re doing what we can to support this community. We provide an open and non judgemental space for students to explore who they are at this pivotal time of their life, and in our admissions process we seek information not only on a student's gender, but their pronouns and gender identity. We’re aware of the differing cultural perspectives of LQBTQIA in the countries that we visit, and can direct students to a semester location where they’ll feel the most comfortable. Operationally we ensure that our instructors use inclusive language and can facilitate conversations with students around their identity, and discuss the rooming situations with LGBTQIA+ students.

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Neurodivergent Support

Our programs are designed to support students with a wide range of neurodiverse conditions while following our essential eligibility criteria. For students needing extra help, we provide personalized wellness plans . These plans include coping strategies, care protocols, and specific requirements to help them engage effectively in the program. Our instructors have access to mental health first aid resources and are well-prepared to offer strong support to students with these needs.

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Accessibility Support

Our programs offer a variety of physical activities, including hiking, surfing, rafting, and mountain biking. We make sure to accommodate students with diverse needs such as asthma, diabetes, and chronic medical conditions, while working within the infrastructure of the host country and our program schedules. We're mindful of the varying levels of accessibility in the countries we visit and can help students choose a semester location where they feel most at ease.

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Impact 🌎

Sustainability

Sustainability is one of the 6 core components of each Pacific Discovery program, where we educate students about the local and global environmental issues, how to travel sustainably, and have them think deeply about their impact and what they can do in their daily lives to affect change.

We recently embarked on a Net Positive Benefit project where we are qualifying what impacts our groups have on the local communities, taking into consideration carbon emissions +/- social impacts +/- conservation impacts +/- community impacts. On our programs, students engage with non-profit organisations such as Litter Intelligence, Scholars of Sustenance, Ulu Mau puanui, Llama Pack project where they directly work for a better future - planting trees, eradicating invasive weed species, helping local communities and food banks.

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Ethical Impact

We make a conscious decision to partner with host communities and suppliers who are passionate about our students' participation and involvement with them being of a positive benefit to the community. We want our presence to enable positive sustainable growth for our partners and this mantra is ingrained in the fabric of our programs.

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Program Highlights

Backpacking trip in Shasta Trinity National Forest, California
Mountain biking in Sedona, Arizona
White water rafting and horseback riding in Missoula, Montana
Ranger Guided Program in the White Sands National Park, New Mexico
3-day yoga & hiking retreat in Joshua Tree National Park, California

Popular Programs

Western USA Summer | 4 weeks

The United States is, in many ways, a country unlike any other, and this experiential travel program offers an amazing immersion into the mountains and deserts of its majestic wild west.
It combines wilderness projects in diverse reserves; outdoor expeditions including backpacking, kayaking, rock climbing, yoga and mountain biking; and educational adventure travel through the west's stunning mountain, forest and desert environments.

Western USA GAP Fall Semester | 10 weeks

The Western United States semester program is a journey of discovery, where students are immersed in a facilitated learning environment, designed to maximize the educational and life-skills potential. Students are regularly encouraged to reflect and think about their values, goals, and what they wish to gain from the program experience and from their lives in general. It’s time to explore our own backyard, and there’s a lot of it!

Western USA GAP Spring Semester | 10 weeks

Program Reviews

4.00 Rating

based on 4 reviews

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Rating Spread Gap Year

5 rating 50%
4 rating 25%
3 rating 0%
2 rating 25%
1 rating 0%

Housing 3.5
Support 3.5
Fun 4
Value 3.75
Safety 3.75

Good for Students, Adventure travelers

Showing 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

I did have an incredible experience. The variety of places we went allowed me to experience and fully enjoy a vast amount of different environments from desert to snow and everything in between. The program has boosted my confidence by physically challenging me in ways I could not imagine before this trip such as rock climbing and mountain biking but I had such fun trying these activities that I now have more confidence to try new things in my everyday life. Additionally working with the group has helped me develop my teamwork and problem solving skills

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?

Mountain biking. I was slightly nervous in my ability to mountain bike as I never had before but I still had a lot of fun doing it.

Pacific Discovery Western US was a below average experience. The planning and coordination was incredibly poor; the second half of the trip was spent camping in below freezing weather in the rain and snow. It was incredibly dangerous, and we felt very uncomfortable, with very little concern from the instructions. In fact, while camping in the freezing cold, one of the instructors felt so uncomfortable that she slept on the bus instead of in her tent, leaving us to freeze all night by ourselves outside. Regarding the instructors, they were very immature and irresponsible, and when students felt unsafe or unhappy, they offered little to no input when issues were brought to their attention. Additionally, throughout the 70 days there were weeks in a row where we were doing non-stop activity, followed by weeks in a row where we had nothing planned but “relaxation days” and it became incredibly boring and unstimulating.

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?

Mac n cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trip was amazing because of the natural beauty that we explored like Arches National Park, Olympic National Park, Stanley - Idaho, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Montesano, Onalaska - Washington, San Juan Islands, Missoula and more. But the trip was so much more enjoyable because of the people including the instructors. I am not the most social person to have all these what were strangers be kind and accept me was really something that I will remember and take from this experience.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Don’t go backpacking in the rain, we tried it and we had to turn around because all of our gear was soaked.

This trip has been an amazing experience. We started in Colorado, went through Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon and now we are in California. We have done lots of activities from hiking to service work to whitewater rafting to mountain biking and to many more activities. All of those activities have been a total blast and I will miss doing these activities with a group of people. I have made some incredible memories and friends on this trip and I will remember this for the rest of my life. The trip was very enjoyable in general and I hope to do something like this again in the near future!!

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?

The most unfamiliar thing I ate on this trip was just plain rice because I had never done that at home before. We were backpacking in Washington, we forgot to bring our vegetables so that evening we just cooked plain rice in our tents. It was ok but it didn’t really taste that good. It was very plain. It could of been better if I had it with veggies or meat!! Other than that, I haven’t had anything that is unusual!! We have had lots of stir fry, taco/burrito nights, pasta/ Mac and cheese, ramen so it has not been bad!! The meals have been good!!

Questions & Answers

About Pacific Discovery

Pacific Discovery gap year, semester and summer programs are experiential education programs suitable for high school graduates, university students and recent graduates. They were developed with a focus on six core components: educational travel, service learning, cultural and language immersion, sustainable adventure travel, outdoors and...