Hi everyone! My name is Cynthia. I am from Durham, North Carolina, and I am so excited about my gap year! During this year, I hope to learn to speak Spanish, travel the world, and volunteer, giving back to communities globally.
I will be spending the first three months of my gap year in Spain. The first month will consist of one week in 4 different cities in Spain, living with host families and taking Spanish language classes. The next two months will be spent in Barcelona, where I will be interning with a Bioengineering research institution 40 hours a week, an opportunity which aligns with my future in biomedical engineering/biophysics. Alongside this internship, I will also spend my evenings volunteering, teaching English to children.
After this portion of my gap year, I will go on to spend a month in Buenos Aires, Argentina, continuing to work on my Spanish fluency. Here I will be a full-time volunteer teaching both English and math to children.
After Argentina, I plan to travel to South Africa for a month. Although my plans in South Africa are more uncertain (at the moment), I know that I would like to aid in disaster relief.
Finally, I will spend the remaining portion of my gap year (around 6 weeks) traveling across Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea, immersing myself in the rich culture, complex history, and unique traditions unlike anything I’ve experienced previously. While traveling, I plan to take on various volunteer roles across multiple fields, including working in schools, assisting with disaster relief, and volunteering on farms, gaining a wide range of experiences and meeting new people.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to take a gap year and am looking forward to new adventures!
