LEAPYEAR Solo Internships

"Those who have not gained treasure in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish."    Dhammapada

During the second half of a LEAPYEAR, students do a three-month internship somewhere in the world. The internship builds on the travel that they've done with a group during the fall semester, and allows them to:

• experience another part of the world while doing something real
• try on work they might like to do for a living
• do service and "give something back"
• have a chance to live and work on their own in a setting where people don't know them and where they can define themselves in a new and fresh way
• deepen their understanding of a field of endeavor and gain practical language fluency

The internship is intended to be a chance to explore an interest, career or region in depth. It's an opportunity to serve others while deepening one's own engagement in the world. It is NOT intended for wandering, pursuit of distraction or recreation, or simply touring around. It's a chance to further your development and evolution as a human being.  It also represents an intense rite of passage - a powerful "enactment" of adulthood - and it starts three days after the formal rite of passage that is built into LEAPYEAR.

For a list of a very few possibilities, check out our Individual Internships (offered separately from LEAPYEAR) or see below for a list of internships that past LEAPYEAR students have done.  Please note that the internships available to LEAPYEAR students number in the thousands and range across 126 countries, including the United States. 

A great way to get a lively sense of what it is like doing a LEAPYEAR Internship is to visit our Travelers' Tales Blog which has many entries from LEAPYEAR students reporting from their solo internship time abroad.  

Internships that past LEAPYEAR students have done:

• work in orphanages and schools on every continent,

• work with the homeless in London,

• teaching at outdoor education centers in the U.S. and New Zealand,

• martial arts study in Thailand, Taiwan, China, Brazil and Israel,

• apprenticeship in a recording studio in England,

• study with midwives in Indonesia,

• studying marine science in Madagascar

• fashion design in Italy,

• living in intentional communities in India, South America, Japan, and Central America,

• apprenticeship with herbalists in the U.S. and Central America,

• care of baboons in South Africa, pumas in Bolivia and cheetahs in Namibia,

• support of the UN in Geneva,

• study of drumming and dance in Ghana and Tanzania,

• cooking in a kibbutz kitchen in Israel, teaching English in Japan,

• teaching autistic kids in Vietnam, and Buddhist monks in Nepal or Cambodia,

• learning permaculture in Mexico,

• jewelry-making in central Mexico and print-making in Cuba,

• leading hiking treks in the Guatemalan highlands,

• teaching tennis in Barcelona,

• apprenticing with a blacksmith in Ireland

• working in a library in Ghana,

• tutoring students at a learning center in The Gambia,

• doing tsunami relief work in Indonesia,

• working in medical clinics in Ecuador, Honduras and India

• working in SCUBA dive shops in Thailand, the Galapagos, and on the Great Barrier Reef

----- and much more....

 

How the second semester internship is chosen, and how much structure and support is provided:

Prior to starting the LEAPYEAR program, students review a list of over 100 internship possibilities to get an idea of what is available. During the first week of the program, our internship coordinator introduces the range of internship possibilities in a group setting, followed by one-on-one meetings with students.  The internship specialist then dialogues with each student during the fall semester to focus in on the specific internship that a student wants to do. We follow up as needed on a one-on-one basis during the second retreat and winter break to help those that have trouble choosing between the myriad options that are available.

We have been sending students abroad on an individual basis since 1994, and have made over 1500 internship placements without major incident.  The solo internship is designed to be a structured educational experience, and as such students are placed with organizations doing social service, educational, environmental, arts, medical, and public health work.  Each student communicates once per week at least with the LEAPNOW office staff and their group members by email, and relates directly in the country of their choice with a program sponsor who is responsible for picking them up at the airport, getting them oriented, providing further training as needed, and looking out for their well-being during their 12-week internship.

 

The most recent entries in our Travelers' Tales Blog - which are all provided by students and leaders while traveling in the field:

Continue on to What Others Say.

Continue on to Logistics & Costs.

LEAPYEAR Learning Programs | Group Semester Abroad | Curriculum and College Credit | Individual Internship Opportunities
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