Hello! My name is Lauren Lavi, I am from Edmond, Oklahoma. During my gap year, I hope to further my independence, character, and sense of adventure.
To kick off my gap year, I am spending 8 weeks in Guatemala (central and western highlands), followed by two weeks in Costa Rica. During this group trip, I am hoping to improve my Spanish through regular language classes and to deepen my appreciation for the earth through sustainability projects and farm work for a few weeks. My stretch goal is to become fluent in Spanish before I arrive in Costa Rica. Follow along to see if I can do it!
Then I will return home for about a month to spend much-needed time with my family. During this time, I will do an unpaid internship with a startup company called Love & Chew. I will manage their social media and work on building publicity for their healthy cookie brand.
As my time in Oklahoma comes to an end, I plan to travel solo to Iceland to see the Northern Lights and the Blue Lagoon, this has been at the top of my bucket list for years! From Iceland, I will fly to Europe to continue solo traveling for a few weeks. While there, I hope to do an internship in the cosmetic science industry with one of the many beauty brands based in Paris.
After a short break home, I leave one last time. This time, I am going to Southeast Asia for my 2nd group trip. I will spend 10 weeks total between Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. I am beyond excited to discover more about myself while experiencing the incredibly beautiful cultures of this region. One of the highlights I am especially looking forward to is earning my scuba diving certificate in the eastern Gulf of Thailand.
I am so thankful to DGYP for giving me this opportunity. I plan to make the most of every day of my gap year and look forward to sharing this amazing new chapter. I hope you’ll follow along!
