Amazing 3 Months!

I'm so glad that I decided to do this gap semester with ARCC. It was without a doubt the best three months of my life. It was challenging for me especially at first to be away from home and experience things that were so different from what I was used to. However, our trip leaders Johanna and Franco were amazing and always supportive and they really helped make the semester as awesome as it was for me. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone in the group and our trip leaders were excellent at facilitating group discussions and activities that helped the group bond throughout the trip.
Each week we were working on a different project in a new location which was fun, although it was often bittersweet to leave the communities we stayed in after such a short period of time. Every week brought a new adventure. Some of the highlights for me were working on a sea turtle conservation project in Costa Rica, a community stay in Ecuador, and working at a girls' orphanage in Peru. The trip had a good mix of service and adventure travel. Things like white-water rafting, ziplining and hikes were so much fun in addition to the service projects we worked on.
The trip also had a good balance between staying in rural and urban areas. All of our accommodations were comfortable; with some being more rustic than others. However for me it was the weeks when we were away from things like wifi or electricity that were the most fun and the most meaningful. I really fell in love with the unbelievably beautiful places we stayed from the mountains of Costa Rica to Lake Titicaca in Peru.
This semester taught me a lot about myself and I'm so thankful for this experience and the people that I shared it with. Overall, this was an amazing semester and I would highly recommend ARCC.