Carpe Diem Education

Without a doubt, Carpe Diem changed my life. I recommend this experience to anyone who has the opportunity. Not only did Carpe help me discover my love for traveling and learning new cultures, They also helped me find myself. I am so happy I made the decision to do a gap year and ever more happy I picked Carpe Diem.

The eight weeks I spent with Carpe Diem in Italy and Greece was the best experience of my life and the best decision I have ever made. Our program leaders (shoutout Megan and Ariana) were the absolute greatest people ever and made our trip as easy and enjoyable as it could have been. All the places we went, from Rome and Athens to rural Tuscany and the Peloponnese, were so amazing and fun. However, my favorite part of traveling with Carpe Diem was the people we met. Carpe Diem has partners located across both countries in every place we stayed. They are such incredible, interesting people with different backgrounds and inspiring stories. Overall, in every aspect, my semester with Carpe Diem was everything I could've hoped for and more. I would strongly recommend this program, as it will teach you many valuable lessons, have you coming out as a better version of yourself, and give you experiences you would never have otherwise.

I just came back from the hawai’i aloha spring semester 2023. Fricking amazing. I wanted a program that I would be able to camp, learn about the environment, learn some sustainable solutions for the planet, go to a cool place, and make friends. I did all of that and more. I grew so much on this program (emotionally). We had a rough start because of weather, however I felt the instructors did a great job with keeping us safe, happy, and having a good time. We got to work with so many contacts carrying in race, philosophy, goal, gender,…. I learned life lessons, made some of the best memories of my life, snorkeled in some of the clearest waters of my life (saw 2 sharks!), did an awesome hike, visited multiple national parks, and grew to absolutely love working with dirt even though I wasn’t a fan before. Even though I definitely had my struggles on the program, went through rough patches and struggled, I came through to be a new person with a new perspective on the world. Thank you carpe diem for helping me figure out a little bit of what I want to do and who I want to be! Recommend!!!!

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I loved every second of Hawai'i! There was some living situations that were difficult, such as there was a lot of wind that ended up breaking people's tents and causing people to loose a ton of sleep. If you do send your kid in the spring, make sure they have a tent that can withstand wind and rain really well as the spring is the rainy and windy season.

Guatemala and Costa Rica give you a different perspective of the world. The richness of the culture and history really makes a mark on you. The different organizations we got to work with gave us so much information on nature, community, responsibility, and more. I recommend carpe diem for all of its opportunities.

This was an amazing program for me as someone who wants to start traveling internationally but wasn’t really sure how. The pre planned itinerary really let me experience this fully but the student directed travel week also let me put what I had learned into practice. I really experienced so much in this program from a multi day trek to chilling leisurely by the beach. We went scuba diving at the beautiful Drake Bay, had 4 weeks of Spanish classes in two different locations at beautiful outdoor schools, participated in homestays, as well as did volunteer work such as natural building and helping out permaculture farms. Loved this program and would highly recommend for people looking for a diverse and supportive gap year!

I am really grateful to have been on this trip. This has impacted my life on so many ways and it has given me a perspective on the world that I didn’t have before going. The activities were unbelievable and if you want to grow a different perspective on the world you should go on this trip.

Was a great experience. I travelled across Italy and Greece which was such an amazing experience. We met so many lovely people from so many different countries and learned all about their cultures. We had some farm stays which were very engaging and some city stays which were fun because we had lots of free time. It was a great mix of working and exploring. I think if you are looking for a trip where you can explore and also learn about other cultures. Overall I highly recommend carpe diem gap year and the Italy and Greece semester especially.

The Italy and Greece carpe program was one of the best decisions of my life! I had an amazing group of other students- i learned so much about myself and the countries i’ve travelled to- we had so much fun together- exploring different cities- working on workaway farms with volunteers from all over the world. It was a fantastic 2 1/2 months and I recommend it to anyone.

My time spent here in SE Asia has been spectacular. We started our journey in Siem Reap Cambodia. We dipped our toes in this city learning about each other and getting curious about our new surroundings. We then spent time visting temples, teaching kids English, going to a floating village and learning about life. We also spent time in Phnom Penh practicing qualities that would be important for student direct travel. In Thailand we spent a week in Bangkok a week at a retreat in udon and also a week with the hill tribe villages in chiang rai. Finally our tripped ended in chiang mai. For me the experience was something I never imagined would come to life. Like many of my fellow cohort members I felt like as a first generation Mexican American I would never have an opportunity like this. I got to travel to quite literally a different world, I got to learn new things about myself and I learned a lot about my peers here.

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As some who needed a year off between high school and college, Carpe Diem was the best fit for me. As part of the Southeast Asia gap year program one of my favorite things was our partners and host families. At Punpun, a greenhouse building and seed saving organization, I’ve never felt more exhausted, but loved. The people there were so kind and caring as well as invested in educational and experiential learning. While there, I met people with similar interests who showed me that I can do exactly what I want to do in life.

If you’re thinking of taking a gap year, this gap year semester is amazing! I really got to develop as a person and had incredible experiences (and food). I also met really kind and down to earth people on this program, made such great memories, and friends! You really get the best of both worlds on this program - rugged nature adventures and city life activities, which I didn’t know about prior. My favorite part of the trip was going to IWP, which was a Buddhist feminist retreat. 10/10, would recommend this trip.

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Carpe Diem changed my life for the better. My semester in Southeast Asia truly was the best time of my life. I experienced so many things that I would have never been able to do had I not found Carpe. For instance building mud bricks, staying at a hill tribe, or eating lunch in a tiny hut on a mountain of rice fields. My expectations were exceeded and I learned so much about myself as a traveler. The friends I have made on this trip are amazing and truly some of the best people I have ever met. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

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Carpe Diem is 100% an experience I would recommend to others. The mix of volunteer service work with explorative more touristy activities was excellent. A highlight of my trip was our experience at Pun Pun farm in northern Thailand. We spent a day helping build mud bricks for a community member’s house. The work was tiring but extremely rewarding. Tiring but very rewarding sums up the whole of my semester perfectly. I now have built great friendships with my fellow group members and wonderfully relationships with our various host families and organizations.

Though Hawaii is technically a state of America it should be recognized as its own country. I’m from the East Coast of the states and I can say confidentially that Hawaii is nothing of the normal. I got used to sleeping in a tent in just a few weeks and actually preferred to sleep in a tent rather than the hostel we were staying in. I got to speak with experts ranging from tsunami, archaeology, and marine biology about the impact me and my peers have on the future of our planet. My group including Overseas Educators was a total of 9 and at first it was a lot of pressure to get along with people but after just 6 weeks I can call everyone here my family and they all teach me things about myself I would have never realized if not coming on this trip. It’s been really hard being so far away from home but it’s going to be just as hard leaving my family in Hawaii. I would recommend this trip to everyone who is looking to get out of their comfort zone.

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My experience with carpe diem had been wonderful so far! Some crucial highlights have been my groups experience at PUN PUN farm. We spent a day learning how to make mud bricks and helping build a locals house. It was the dirtiest, yet most inspiring, day of my gap year so far. The amount of appreciation I have gained for my own life and living back in the states is astronomical. Immediately following our week at PUN PUN we traveled to a local village for home stays to learn about bamboo, soap, and tea making. The severe language barrier was a struggle, but it really highlighted the simpler things in life like a silent dinner or the process of weaving clothes. Another huge highlight of my gap year experience so far was our SCUBA week in Koh Tao! My instructor, Nacho, was amazing and all of the wonderful fish and corals we saw were beautiful! After gaining my open dive certification, I realized on my last dive I didn’t want to never see underwater world again. Carpe Diems gap year experience so far has lead me to find my new passions like marine biology, the art of making our own bread, or even hand washing my own clothes. My experience of group travel with carpe so far has been wonderful and gives me the courage to do another semester with carpe as a independent latitude student.

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Carpe’s Hawaii trip is a great program, we got to work with small organic and native farms while also hiking, snorkeling, surfing, etc. I learned a lot and it was a transformative experience. We were camping almost the whole time, all the campsites and farms were really great places to stay.

This trip was life-changing. I will forever have the memories of the activities I did, the people I served, and the amazing group I travelled with. Not only did I see and do incredible things, but I learned so much. I learned so much about culture, people, traditions, and myself. What an amazing experience that I will never forget!

My time spent with Carpe Diem Education was one of the most impactful periods of my life. My group semester was spent in East Africa, exploring Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda. We learned about vast amounts of history and culture, spent time working with multiple orphanages and schools, learned to scuba dive, dug deep on self-reflection, went on a safari, completed a yoga and meditation retreat, stayed with incredible homestays and built relationships that have lasted the five years since the end of our semester. The relationships I built during Carpe Diem are some of my most treasured. My latitudes semester was spent at a school for children with special needs in rural Uganda, and it was empowering and impactful in ways that I continue to learn about and realize today. I finished my attitudes semester in the spring of 2018 after spending 3 months working every day with the most incredible group of students. In January 2022, I started a Master's Degree in Special Education. My time with Carpe shaped who I am in a dramatic way, and I can't give enough thanks to the incredibly purposeful design of my program. My group semester gave me the confidence and traveling know-how to travel to Egypt solo after my latitudes semester. In May of 2023, I am going to the wedding of a friend I met on group semester. If you are thinking about a gap year program, Carpe Diem Education will help you learn more about yourself and the world around you than you could in any other setting. Anytime I have the opportunity to tell people about Carpe is a privilege. Their programs are designed to push you to learn, grow and step out of your comfort zone.

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My semester with Carpe Diem was the best 3 months I could have asked for. I learned so many important life lessons, discovered so many new parts of the world, met so many incredible people, learned a ton about myself and my goals, and I had so much fun. We lived with homestay families, took Spanish classes, participated in community service/volunteer projects, went hiking, and explored many cities and countries. I loved the food, the people, the beauty and nature. We dug holes in a backyard to help a family get an irrigation system going for their toilet system and crops in Nicaragua; we worked on a permaculture farm and learned how to make chocolate; we hiked up volcanoes in Guatemala; we went on a yoga retreat; we patrolled the beaches at night and helped sea turtles camouflage their nests in Costa Rica; and we got SCUBA certified in Honduras. Carpe Diem runs really good programs, they are so fun, smooth, varied, full of learning, and introduce students to many important topics and life experiences. 10/10 recommend!