ARCC Programs

Community Photos

Tortoise on Prison Island outside Zanzibar

We built and installed a solar panel energy system in this Maasai woman's home! This photo was taken after we finished the installation, and she asked me to take a photo with her.

The view from our second hostel on the trip

The women in our rural Nepali village homestay

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About

ARCC has been offering programs for young adults since 1983. ARCC Gap Semesters are an opportunity to live and learn in some of the greatest classrooms on earth. Our semester programs take students on a journey of discovery of local peoples, places, cultures and ideas through project-based learning, rich cultural immersion, personal reflection and exhilarating adventure.

ARCC Gap Semesters have a vibrant educational foundation complementing each and every destination and highlighting regional topics that are directly linked to global issues. Through delving into these topics ranging from the environment to public health (and more) students have the opportunity to explore future aspirations in a tangible hands-on manner.

ARCC offers semesters in North America, South America, East Africa, Asia, Himalayas, Pacific Islands, and Central America. ARCC Gap Programs focus on personal growth in small groups of 8-12 students in an engaging, goal-driven, and leadership focused environment.

Website

www.adventurescrosscountry.com

Founded

1983

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Reviews

ARCC's trip was incredible! For one, the instructors were amazing; connecting with each and every student, being there to support us, and helping build a unified group. Secondly, the trip itself had a great balance between hiking in the beautiful outdoors, learning in a classroom setting, service work, and bonding with the group. Due to COVID, some experiences had to be changed last minute and ARCC adapted the programs well. I grew as a leader, student, and as a person. Highly recommend to anyone taking a gap year/semester.

What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?

When we went scuba diving, there were sea lions swimming all around us!

My son just finished the program and we can’t say enough how amazing it was for him. He loved the adventures, the learning, the instructors, and the friends he made. It was seriously the experience of a lifetime!

The program was both relaxed enough that the kids had a great deal of independence, but structured enough that they were busy every day learning, exploring m, and laughing. My son’s stories are so incredible and the pictures that they took tell the tale of a tightknit group who came together and learned so much. I highly recommend this trip in this program.

This experience was beyond incredible. I made lifelong friends and learned so much about the locations I traveled to. My leaders made sure everyone was happy and satisfied and getting the most out of this opportunity. I truly am a different person after this trip and I wouldn’t change one thing about it. I never thought I would hike 15 miles in a day, get my SCUBA open water diver certification, become a certified Wilderness First Responder, or hike through Glacier National Park and spit a bear and her cub next to the trail. I saw so many new things and places that I would never have been able to see without ARCC. EVERYONE should take a gap year and do a semester long program, it helped me understand exactly what I want to do for this coming fall and opened so many doors for me. Thank you ARCC for an incredible 2 1/2 months.

What was the most nerve-racking moment and how did you overcome it?

Manta ray night dive after our SCUBA certification.

This program was amazing and unique is every way. It was educational but had a balanced schedule of fun and adventuring. Group leaders were great and always made us feel safe and made sure we enjoyed what we were doing. Everyone in the group got along great and even when things got difficult or confusing we had a good group attitude about it. Long car rides in a 15 passenger van are no biggie when you are with 14 amazing friends. I was nervous to go on this semester but after only a few days on the trip I knew I had made the right decision :)

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Come prepared to be as present as possible and to be a good group member

I had a great time! It was a nice balance of adventure activities and bonding with the group. I loved my instructors and they were very well prepared for the job and supportive of us. They were also very passionate and knowledgeable about the things we were doing. I liked that we spent half the time in Hawaii and half on the mainland. This gave me two distinct experiences that I found very valuable yet different. I also liked how we moved around so much, I feel like I saw a very wide variety of places in just eight short weeks.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?

Costa Rica

Wildlife Conservation and Research Costa Rica is one of the most...

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Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Why did you choose this program?

I chose to spend my first semester with the ARCC Gap Year Program for many reasons.

From the beginning, ARCC presented an extremely welcoming and engaging opportunity. After talking briefly with other organizations about their programs, where I could go, what a potential itinerary could be, I had no doubt that ARCC was the perfect match for me, they offered everything I was looking for and dreaming of. With a very organized website, stunning reviews, and very friendly staff that responded immediately to my many questions, I knew I could 100% trust this organization.

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

ARCC sent out many personal emails and forms out to not only myself but also my parents. We received phone calls, video chats, and emails very frequently. These emails had lots of information, some focused on just describing the beautiful Masai culture we'd be living in or the population food in each culture. Other emails were about the specifics of the trip or scheduling a time to video chat and touch base.

There was also a very informative and helpful pre-departure webinar answering all the questions imaginable.

I had to do a lot of this on my own, of course with the help of ARCC and my family. My high school, however, was not very familiar with this pathway and left me to work my way through it.

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What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

My three months in East Africa with ARCC was the most amazing and incredible time of my life. I cannot begin to describe how much pure love and joy I experienced. There are some tough times, not everything is rainbows and butterflies. But those tougher moments make the other ones that much better.

Embrace the uncomfortable, the weird, the different. You will never regret taking a chance like this. I never once felt homesick, but now being back home, I am flooded with that feeling, wishing I was back with my ARCC family.

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what an average day/week looks like in an ARCC program.

For my trip, we had about 50 days of camping, where we would wake up around 7:00 to prepare breakfast, get ready, and head off to whatever activity we were doing that day. We traveled around in a huge truck that held all our bags and food, so some days were spent traveling to a new location and singing throwbacks at the top of your lungs.

Without fail, however, every night before dinner, we would do a "chow circle" where we would come together, make announcements, give shoutouts, and "pass the pulse". P the P was a silent hand squeeze to the person next to you until it went all the way around the circle, a reassuring feeling that we are all there for each other.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

Having struggled with anxiety and depression throughout high school, I was extremely nervous I couldn't do it. I wouldn't make friends, I'd be homesick, I'd be left behind and forgotten by my friends now in college. I got into my own head and started making up scenarios to scare myself. I thought I wasn't brave or strong enough.

What I learned, however, was that stepping out of your comfort zone and facing these fears head-on is sometimes the only way to understand what you're capable of.

Is there any other advice for prospective travelers?

Meredith Burke

2014 Alum

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Graham Phelps

Program

ARCC Gap: Centro-Caribbean - Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica & Belize

Job Title

International Program Instructor

Graham grew up in Durham, New Hampshire in a beautiful house tucked away in the woods. He spent most of his childhood playing all kinds of sports and exploring in the woods. He has four sisters with whom he is very close. In his down time he loves to cook, spend time with friends, snowboard, surf, watch/read Game of Thrones, and participate in just about any kind of sport outside.

Tell us more about your educational, international, and professional experience:

I attended the University of Vermont where I was in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. My four years at UVM were the catalyst to my appreciation for the environment and how important it is that we all contribute to preserving the beauty we find in the natural world. I also pursued a variety of opportunities working with developing youth in my jobs as sports coordinator for a local YMCA and as a snowboard instructor for children with autism through Vermont Adaptive Sports.

While at UVM I developed my passion for exploring the world and discovering new cultural experiences. I studied abroad in Perth, Australia and organized a service trip to Peru to the small town of Lobitos. The latter was a life-changing experience for me that sparked my interest in “Voluntourism” and the cultural richness of Latin America, eventually leading me to live in Ecuador for four months.

I have been leading programs for ARCC for four years now in many amazing places such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Cuba, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Thailand, including two gap semesters in Asia and Latin America. No matter if on a two week trip or a 3 month long gap program, I have watched these trips transform students. ARCC has provided me with an incredible platform to broaden horizons and spread love to all corners of the world which I can't wait to continue this Spring on the Patagonia/Cuba Gap Program.

What is your favorite travel memory?

My favorite memory traveling with ARCC is from a backpacking trip I led in California. My group was camping for the night in the Lake Tahoe Basin. We all decided that we were not going to set up our tents and all slept together under the stars outside.

That morning we all woke up at 4am to see the sun rise over the lake from a beautiful outlook on the ridge. We all watched the sun rise in silence and as I looked around I noticed a lot of the kids were crying. I was really confused so I went and asked one of the girls if she was ok? And she whispered to me "we are all from the city and have not seen anything this pretty before, the tears aren't because we are sad, this is amazing".

I went back to my rock in silence and felt so humbled to see how powerful that morning was for those students.

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How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

The last four years working with ARCC has created so many incredible learning opportunities. I have discovered a lot about the world and about myself on these amazing trips. I have gained an appreciation for cultural exchange and the sentiment of love that can be spread person to person no matter what cultural differences exist.

I have grown a lot as a leader and have learned the true meaning of empathizing, both with the students on my trips and with the different cultures I have come across.

It is amazing how far a smile can go, and I have found that no matter where you are in the world they seem to always be contagious.

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

Wow, this is a hard question. So many of the programs offer lots of different experiences so it would not be easy to choose just one. Nevertheless I would choose the Patagonia and Cuba Gap Program, which I am actually going to be leading this spring!

This program visits some of the most magnificent nature preserves in the world while in Patagonia and offers perspective to the importance of continuing the protection of these places. The Cuba section is also extremely enlightening but more on the side of cultural exchange and the power of peace through meaningful human to human interactions as we start to heal our country's relationship with this amazing country.

This trip has a healthy balance of experience in both urban, rural, and completely natural areas. The culture in the Andes and the Caribbean are both completely different and equally amazing!

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

The biggest reason ARCC has had so much success leading trips all over the world is because of how intentional we are with every aspect of the trips. Nothing we do with ARCC is done carelessly, there is a reason for everything we do.

As a leader I always adopt this philosophy, from how I debrief group initiatives, to the traditions I bring to my trips. The office staff also echo's this sentiment and they are very intentional with the service and educational opportunities they pursue and aim to make the experiences as enriching as possible for their students.

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