Home | Himalayan Gap Year

Tag Line: Explore globally, engage locally – where travels abroad lead to journeys within.

Snapshot: A customized program of Himalayan adventure, service learning, cultural exchange, and spirituality.

Mission Statement: Providing students and adults with opportunities for global exploration and inner discovery, in a customized program of adventure, service learning, cultural exchange, and spirituality. The student-centered program, including a structured orientation and mentored placements, fosters independence, initiative, cooperation, and global awareness.

Goals for Participants: Explore the world, take a break, make new friends, encounter new cultures, become a world citizen, explore your passions, be of assistance, chart your future – know where you stand, who you are, what you want to become, and why!

Requirements: Participants should be independently motivated, fit for international travel, flexible in group living situations, psychologically stable, and physically fit. Students must be 18–24 years old and hold a high school diploma at the start date of the program.

Overview: A customized program of adventure, service learning, cultural exchange, and spirituality, in the Himalaya of northeast India. Students select a core module as their focus: (1) adventure and ecotourism; (2) volunteering with children; (3) sustainability internships; (4) culture and language; (5) spiritual journeys – combinations are possible. We live together in a small family-run hotel for 4–6 weeks; a 10 day orientation is followed by individualized placements during the day, and speakers, workshops, and free time in the evenings. Weekends are a time to explore, and rest. During the last 2–4 weeks, students may elect independent placements further afield, living in monasteries, village homestays, or hostels. A media project, through which students distill and share their insights about timely issues, is strongly encouraged. We also offer support for academic research, as well as opportunities for adults.

Program Highlights:

Ideal location in the Sikkim Himalaya (NE India): politically stable, abundant opportunities, environmentally and culturally diverse, many English-speakers
Exceptional staff of seasoned educators and on-site staff; program directors are in the field
Diverse offerings – students choose from 5 core modules: adventure & ecotourism, volunteering with children, sustainability internships, culture & language, and spiritual journeys.
Students live together in a small, family-run hotel in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, at the start of the program. Later in the program, students venture further afield, living in villages with host families or in trekking hostels.
Program transitions from a core orientation to individualized mentored placements, and finally to independent placements. The curriculum fosters independence, initiative, cooperation, and global awareness
A documentary media project is a highlight of our curriculum; students develop a multimedia presentation, using essays, photographs, or video to explore a timely issue, published interactively as a blog or web-based exhibit.
Affordable and flexible: 4–10 week options for students; US $3600–$6900 (extra fees apply to some activities); 2–10 week options for adults
Academic options: instructors and facilities to support academic study and research, via connections with Sikkim University, Manipal University, and the Institute of Tibetology, as well as a global network of academic advisors.
Our program promotes independence, initiative, cooperation, and global awareness. We nurture self-esteem, confidence, insight, and integrity. We offer a unique blend of oversight and independence, structure and flexibility, opportunity and affordability.

Himalayan Gap Year

Explore Globally, Engage Locally!

Where travels abroad lead to journeys within