Program Reviews

My Peru experience was really amazing. I had so many experiences that I'd love to ramble on about forever, but I'll keep this review short. My best memories from Peru were reaching the top of a 16,000 foot pass and feel the life-giving wind rush by me, fishing for piranhas on the Amazon River and playing soccer at sunset with the indigenous Shipibo people in the hot and humid Amazon forest, organizing shopping lists and buying enough food for fifteen hungry trekkers for five days all while speaking Spanish, and experiencing the sunrise over one of the seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu. My Dragons experience in Peru gave me so many great experiences, but it also gave me so much more than the memories. It introduced me to some of the most authentic people in the world who didn't measure happiness by wealth and success, but by relationships with your family and community. It showed me how much I have yet to learn, both about the world around me and myself. It showed me large-scale issues of poverty, resource extraction, and civil rights. It also revealed to me how much that I, as a curious traveler and not an ignorant tourist, have to learn to make myself a more responsible global citizen.

As I walked over the hill that early morning in August, panting from the mile sprint up stairs I’d just completed, all I saw were misty clouds that populated the mountains. Slowly, sunrays began to peak over the mountains, and with their arrival the clouds seemed to disappear, revealing Machu Picchu. The image is stuck in my mind today.

My group visited Machu in our last week in Peru, culminating a trip in which we’d fished for piranhas on the Amazon River, played soccer under the sunset with the indigenous Shipibo people, and visited a hot springs resort in the cloud forest. We’d spent ten days trekking in the northern Andes where we crossed paths with two individuals and studied Spanish language and Peruvian culture in the Sacred Valley. However, as I look back on my Dragons experience, I think about the internal growth I experienced instead of my external experiences.

I remember the relationships I created with my fellow Dragons. I reflect on the lessons I learned as a guest in another land and attempt to emulate the kindness and hospitality I received in my daily life. I flashback to the views of the Andean mountains and the faces of joy, amazement, and appreciation of my group. But most importantly, I recall the discussions and moments that taught me what it means to be a global citizen and how small actions can keep alive the lessons I took from Peru and make the world around me a better place. Finally, Dragons gave me a community. A community of like-minded, curious, passionate, and courageous students and instructors who truly want to make an impact in this world. This is what I will take away the most from my Dragons experience.

This voyage of exploration was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. It may hurt my credibility to put near perfect score for everything, but ti is hard to come up with bad parts of the journey I went on. The only two I marked down are for housing and safety. I did this for the pure reason that going on this trip means accepting being out of your comfort zone and some of the housing is included in that. My first home stay house was, as my instructor best put it, very materially poor, but it did not diminish the great family I was staying with or the great times I had in the city of San Antonio Palopo. This trip was the experience of a lifetime and I cannot recommend it to anybody enough. In fact I implore you, if you are not interested in this particular dragons program, to go to there website and check out other programs that they offer. For if it is a fraction as good as the one I went on I can promise you that it is well worth it. If you want to know more contact them and experience it for yourself as I promise any descriptions I could give about how it changed my life or the experiences I had cannot properly do it justice.

My time abroad was an insane experience and I learned a lot. The trip certainly had its ups and downs, but the overall experience was worth it. Nicaragua and Guatemala are two of the most beautiful places I have been in my life. The treks on this trip were amazing. Home stays are a large part of your time here. Before you go on the trip I would ask as many questions as possible to better prepare yourself (get in contact with alumni) for the 3 months you'll be away from home. Brian, Chelsea, Irene, and Juancho are all incredible people and will help make the trip great, so will the other kids you're with.

I recently returned from spending six months in Senegal for my gap year before attending Dickinson College in the fall. The three months I spent with Where There be Dragons were so transformative to my overall gap year experience but also to me. Throughout the program I learned so much, and created such deep connections with both the people I was with in the group but also local communities we were welcomed into so warmly. I stayed in Senegal for three months after the program ended and without being on my own and traveling on my own I would not have realized the extent of how valuable a Dragons program is. The skills I learned through Dragons were the only way I was able to continue traveling on my own, and the only reason that I was able to create opportunities for myself and discover more while staying safe and connecting with new people and communities. I think the most powerful aspects of the Dragons experience for me were the tools and skills we learned that I now know are essential to intentional travel in new spaces and places. Language lessons, history lessons, and independent projects were key in my Dragons experience and helped me create my own connections to my host families and the places we visited. The curriculum is carefully created by the instructors, and also modified by the students with input and planning done by the group and for the group. The instructors offered one on one support but also were mindful in everyone's transitions to traveling and living in a new place and challenged us to always get out of our comfort zones. Only because of my Dragons experience was I confident, skilled and experienced enough to continue traveling on my own in Senegal afterwards. After returning home from Dragons I have a renewed sense of inspiration and motivation to continue learning about this part of the globe that is so often forgotten by our history classes but also I am inspired and curious to explore new places and because of the skills I gained through Dragons I am so thankful to say that I know I can go to those places safely while having the adventure of a lifetime and continuing to learn and grow.

I went on the Mekong Semester in the spring, almost a full year ago, and I still am unpacking how it has affected me as a person. I met incredible people, saw fantastic landscapes, ate the best food in my life, and fell in love with everywhere I went. My curiosity in Buddhism has only deepened, as has my desire to learn languages-- I'm now studying Chinese in college because of this trip, and I'm hoping to learn Lao and Cambodian someday. I feel more confident and prepared in college, and I think that I understand myself to a much deeper degree now. The instructors are what made my experience, as they are all so knowledgeable and passionate! I miss the temples and marketplaces I wandered through, and I cannot imagine what I would be like without Dragons.

The first night my rural homestay was absolutely amazing. I didn't realize the family I was staying with knew little English and I spent the entire night laughing at myself and point and acting out different things to learn the local dialect. To this day, I remember this night and the lesson and power it had in my life. The simplicity of human connection and companionship with the communication of laughter speaks way more sometimes words do. This rawness of expression is something I take and cherish everyday.

In short, my month in Nepal was the best month of my life thus far.

Ever since I was 8 years old and got my hands on National Geographic Kids, I knew I needed to get to the Himalaya. As I read more about Nepal, I couldn't help but fall in love from afar. As I was approaching my high school graduation, I was intent on exploring the country before starting college. After a friend of mine recommended Where There Be Dragons, I looked into the program and requested a home visit by a staff member. As soon as he finished his presentation to my family, I knew Dragons was the right program for me--someone intellectually curious, adventurous, creative, open-minded, and looking to gain a deeper understanding of the way people live.

To say that my experience with Dragons in Nepal was phenomenal is an understatement. My instructors were nurturing, knowledgable on a wide range of topics, always willing to have personal discussions, open to student comments and suggestions for improvement, seemingly knew how to address every situation relating to health and safety, optimistic, and FUN!

The experiences I had, support I received from my instructors, conversations and laughs shared with my peers, knowledge gained, situations I encountered, and people I met are all aspects that contribute to the massive impact my program had on me and the way in which I view the world. Throughout my time in Nepal I always felt safe, but was challenged to grow, think and experience in ways I never thought were possible.

If you are a student looking to immerse yourself in a new culture, learn a foreign language, spend time acquainting yourself with Tibetan Buddhism, familiarize yourself with the breathtaking landscape that is the Himalaya, experience living with a family in a country thousands of miles from your home, or merely embark on a new adventure, I couldn't recommend this program more. If you are a parent looking to send your teenager on their dream trip- but also one that is safe and "worth the money," as my parents were, send them with Dragons.

When asked the question "How could your program have been better?", I stutter, as I honestly cannot imagine a better program. Though my program was only one month long, I forged lasting relationships with instructors and peers that now--five months after returning from Nepal--are still very strong. I can't imagine a program that does it better than Dragons.

Guatemala was a life-changing experience. I made some of my closest friends, met the most wonderful local people, and learned from the most qualified instructors. I learned about a forgotten Guatemalan history, I learned the Spanish language, I learned about a new culture, and in the process I learned about myself and my place in this world. I was pushed to challenge myself and try something new, and this push changed the person I am today. One of the most memorable experiences of my Where There Be Dragons trip to Guatemala was on our trek. It was the last day of the trek, it was pouring rain, and I didn't have a rain jacket. I was pushing myself through the muddy ground, drenched in water. We got out of the beautiful mountains into a little village. I look up at this little house and saw a smiling little boy. There were horses outside his house that were so skinny you could see their ribs. Although he didn't have much, he looked at me and saw my discomfort. He reached out his hand and offered me a garbage bag to use as a raincoat. That little boy helped me see the bigger picture. Putting others before yourself, embracing the true meaning of community, and doing good deeds, not just because you know it is the right thing to do, but because you genuinely care. Guatemala changed me, and if anyone has the privilege to go on this trip, they should take it in a heartbeat.

The WTBD China semester program is not a party, it's more of an adventure. It is not always comfortable, but it is always enriching. The experiences are not always fun, but they are always valuable. You won't always be relaxed and smiley, but you will always be learning. I don't want to make this program sound excessively tough, it really isn't, but I do want to say that WTBD is more about experiential learning, understanding how to organize and participate in a group, challenging yourself and growing than it is about just having a fun easy-going time. This is not to say you won't have fun, you will! But I make this point about WTBD being more than a vacation because I see the controlled discomfort and challenges of WTBD as the most valuable parts of the program. There are lots of study abroad providers out there, but I don't think there are many (if any) that can offer the range of experiences WTBD does. With Dragons, I visited a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and spoke with a lama. I planted, husked, cooked and ate rice with farmers. I made real connections and had meaningful conversations with home-stay families. I learned more about when to lead, and when to follow. We visited a Chinese primary school. We (the students) planned our group's trip to the Tenger deserts and Beijing. We spent a week in what was basically a Daoist commune. Those are just a few examples from what was probably the most incredible semester I've had. If you have the chance to experience Where There Be Dragons, I highly recommend it.

Spending a month long cultural immersion trip in West Africa would be a trip expected to full of new experiences, peoples and rituals that one could only attempt to fathom. In my experience in the beautiful country of Senegal, I would have to say I didn't necessary find this misleading. To a small amount of sincere surprise, in my trip to Senegal, I gained comfort in the 'new' world my fellow Dragons explorers were submerged in.

In my time with my host family on the third week of the trip, I got the opportunity to connect more personally with the the way of life that the people in the island of Niodior thrived in. There I was welcomed to spend time with the family of Souleman, a boy who reminded me of myself when I was his age. Souleman is an attentive, sincere and fearless kid that pretty much had my back the entire time I stayed at his home. When I would socialize and chill with the older men of Souleman's family I felt as I was hanging around my cousins and uncles back home in Mexico. The conversations were relaxed and the night carried our conversation as we venture to talk about romance, future and religion. These kind of connections gave me the impression that the culture I so intrinsically wondered about was not so different than mine. The traditions, foods and tongues were different, but the people who lived this way are just human, as am I.

Learning what I did in the manner I did sprawled a sense of global citizenship in my identity. A gift that gives me the duty to travel more and more. I believe its a gift which I still carry to this day, engraved in the passport God has given me.