Blog

Past student Abby recounts life after her Pacific Discovery program. I distinctly remember the day after I had flown home from Costa Rica. It was a sunny day in mid-April, and I could barely process what had just happened. I had just had the adventure of a lifetime. I had spent the last seventy days seeing and doing more than some people get to do in their whole lives. I had jumped from waterfalls, seen a volcano erupt in front of my eyes, dived the crystalline turquoi… Read more

Brace yourself for the weird and wonderful creatures of the Land Down Under. 1. Koala Cute, fluffy little sleepyheads. Perhaps not so friendly, because they don’t like to be woken up from their 22 hours of sleep daily. When they do rise and shine, it’s to eat eucalyptus leaves.  The koala has one of the smallest brains in proportion to body weight of any mammal, probably because of its nutrient poor diet. They are also endangered, so lots of environmental activists are… Read more

What does it really look like trekking in the Himalayas?  We are thrilled to announce we have just released a combined India and Nepal Semester Program. These exotic sounding countries conjure images of monasteries, the towering Himalayas, the Taj Mahal, mountains of spices and colorful fabrics. Nepal won’t just be trekking; it will also involve grassroots homestays, yoga at a buddhist monastery and a safari in Chitwan National Park. After several weeks of travel, we ju… Read more

Around January of my senior year of high school, my mother told me she thought I should consider taking a gap year. The term “gap year” always made images of traveling to far-off places for months at a time swirl around in my brain. But I had never really entertained the idea. Travel was expensive, and gap years didn’t really sound that beneficial. Also, I liked the idea of going to college. Why would I want to delay that?  But then I began to reflect on the past few y… Read more

Past student Abigail recalls her time on her Central America Gap Semester with Pacific Discovery in a three-part blog series. In part three, we head to Costa Rica! We continued to Costa Rica, where we participated in various service learning activities, such as animal care at the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center, sustainability education at Rancho Mastatal, and whitewater rafting on the Sarapiqui River.   The Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center was very cool because we got … Read more

Past student Abigail recalls her time on her Central America Gap Semester with Pacific Discovery in a three-part blog series. In part two, we head to Guatemala! Guatemala was the part of the trip that I was most excited for and most anxious for.  This was a country I'd never explored before, so I was excited to see a new place. However, I think I had a lot of preconceived notions about Guatemala -- that it was a very poor and humid country, and that our accommodations a… Read more

Past student Abigail recalls her time on her Central America Gap Semester with Pacific Discovery in a three-part blog series. In part one, we head to Mexico! It was 3 a.m. on February 1, 2021.  The COVID-19 pandemic was raging across the United States. And I was choosing to travel. This may not have seemed like the wisest decision, but I knew that the gap year organization I was traveling with, Pacific Discovery, was taking safety precautions. Masks, routine PCR tests, … Read more

New Zealand is the creme de la creme of pristine environments. It has been rated as the world’s Number 1 most scenic location by US News Today. Milky, glacial fed valleys, rolling green hills straight out of Lord of the Rings, alpine tundra with sweeping views of snow capped mountains and remnant volcanoes. The ocean views and bays with windswept pohutukawa (New Zealand's christmas tree) are unbeatable. Put simply, New Zealand is a photographer's dream. Here are our top … Read more

Thai food is famous all over the world for good reason! On your Thailand Mini Semester, make sure to push yourself out of your comfort zone and try some of the local delicacies. When we first arrive in Thailand, we will be immersed in a melting pot of smells and colors - especially in the local markets! The secret to Thai food is the balance between the sweet, sour and salty elements. We will do a cooking course on program to learn more, but every day is truly a food jo… Read more

Life on the road although incredible can be tough. Here are some tips for coping mechanisms while on your program. If you are contemplating signing up for a program or you’re getting ready to head out on a program, you might be thinking, how in the world am I going to travel FULL TIME with a group of strangers for one to three months of my life?! Further to that, I won’t have my special pillow, my lunchtime latte, or my regular football lessons and I guess my sleep-ins … Read more